Program areas at Yinghua Academy Community Association
School support: yaca gave Yinghua Academy $105,000 for the school's general budget. We gave the school $45,000 in july 2020, which was supposed to be a gift for fy2019 (but because the school was closed for covid reasons, ended up in fy2020). In may 2021, we gave the school $60,000. This money came from a joint fundraiser that yaca did with the Yinghua school board. We raised more than $120,000 during this stay safe dragons campaign. Yaca is retaining some of this money for now and will gift to the school again as their needs arise.yaca paid for roller skate rental so all students who attended school in person in the spring could have a two-week roller skating unit in pe classes. We also paid for reusable cloth masks with our dragon logo that we gave to all staff and students at the beginning of the school year.
Community building: yaca usually organizes many social events and volunteers for school. Volunteering, however, was shut down for almost the entire year, and our in-person events got canceled. Still, we rallied to support the school Community under these new covid circumstances. We hosted several used uniform sales that raise money to benefit the school and provide inexpensive (or free to free and reduced lunch families) uniforms to Yinghua families. The spring sale was our highest grossing sale ever. We also contributed to the school's celebration of two annual cultural events: the midautumn moon festival and chinese new year.
Teacher appreciation: throughout the school year, yaca usually hosts activities for Yinghua faculty and staff. Annual all- staff events included a welcome back to school lunch and a traditional american thanksgiving dinner. We couldn't do either of those all-staff meals in person this year. So, yaca purchased boxed meals for every staff member when they arrived to prepare for the new school year. For thanksgiving, we gave everyone teachers, administration, bus drivers, after school childcare staff, etc. $50 to spend on their own family celebration. Yaca also gave all members of the school staff gifts for confucius day (an important holiday in china and taiwan where teachers are honored for their work). For chinese new year, we gave $50 gift cards to all non-teaching staff, because each class gives their own gifts to their teachers. We also provided copies of the school yearbook to all staff, and supplied the staff lounges and lunchroom with a coffee maker, coffee, and some other snacks.