March 15, 2007

Leland Bridge Parents honored at State of the City event

Chinese-American parent group recognized for fundraising efforts

By Ali Abdollahi
Staff Writer

Members of the Leland High School Bridge Parents group were named among the community honorees at the San Jose Community Breakfast and State of the City event on March 7. District 10 Councilmember Nancy Pyle honored the group, which has raised over $80,000 since 2001 for Leland.

The group started late in 2000, when a small group of Chinese-American Leland parents solicited donations from fellow Chinese-American parents for a new media center at Leland. The parents raised more than $30,000 within one month. “This unprecedented fund-raising endeavor uncovered a couple of things about our fellow immigrants in Almaden,” said Bridge parent J.F. Lue. “First, they can contribute to the local schools substantially if there is a channel reaching out to them. Secondly, because of the cultural and language barriers, these Chinese parents were not well informed of school events.”

To help bridge the information gap and invite more community contributions to the school, the Leland Bridge Parents group was founded. The group supports school activities with volunteers, collaborates with other Leland parent organizations, and publishes a biannual Chinese-language newsletter about the school.

The group’s most popular and successful activity, however, is the annual Leland Bridge Night fund-raiser. While all the Bridge Parents’ activities involve the Leland High community, the Bridge Night event reaches out to the parents of Leland alumni and the larger Chinese population in Almaden. Last year’s event earned the school over $10,000 for stage renovations, motion detector lights, and school programs such as Speech & Debate and Robotics.