Hello and welcome to the inaugural edition of the WiSH newsletter!

I’m Richard Cohn and I’m proud and humbled to be the incoming Chairman for the WiSH (William S. Hart) Education Foundation. My wife and I have lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for 16 years and our daughter is a student in the Hart school district. Along with Executive Director Amy Daniels and Lynne Secrest, our Vice Chair, we’re going to work harder than ever to deliver!

Like you, we live here for the schools, community and the people. One of the things that makes our district so fantastic is that we have amazing teachers and administrators who partner to deliver a wide variety of amazing programs for our students, including STEM, Music, Dance, Sports, Performing Arts, as well as various clubs & teams.

A relatively common mistake made during our first years as a local foundation is to associate us with another, more well known, Foundation. Though WiSH is not affiliated with the ‘Make a Wish’ foundation, we are similar in that our mission is to make WiSHes come true…in our case, for the staff and 23,000 students in grades 7-12 of the William S. Hart School District.

As you may know, state funding that our schools receive is not nearly enough to meet the entire needs of the programs and services that are offered. WiSH helps to bridge that gap by funding “WiSHlists” for various schools, including Science apparatus, calculators, books and musical instruments, to name a few. We fund our programs through fundraising at various local events, corporate and individual memberships as well as sponsorships…as it ‘Take s a Village”, we can use your help!

Benefiting the district benefits our students, our communities and helps us continue to attract top talent in teachers, principals and administrators for our kids…our future! Remember that even if you don’t have a child in the district, keeping our schools maintained at these high levels benefits every resident in the valley, as your property values are inextricably tied to the great schools in your neighborhood.

WiSH has a lot of great things planned for the remainder of the year…from our Free Vehicle Raffle, David Bowie Cover Concert and community JetHawks baseball game to of course, our very exciting Cocktails on the Roof event. With the knowledge that your donations are 100% tax deductible and every dollar makes a difference in your student’s classroom, I hope that we can count on your support. Be sure to check www.WiSHscv.org often to see the latest news and event updates.

I welcome your feedback, input and suggestions…feel free to reach out to our team: WiSH@hartdistrict.org.

Here’s to a happy and successful New Year!

Cheers,
Richard Cohn