Magical Night at SVEF’s First “Daughter and Me” Dance

By Roger Snyder

On Saturday night January 28, 2017 the Scotts Valley Educational Foundation (SVEF) held its first ever “Daughter and Me” dance at Bruno’s BBQ in Scotts Valley. The event was sold out, with over 350 daughters and their dance partners enjoying an evening of dancing, food, and fun.

When asked what her favorite part of the night was, Rosslyn Hoversten said, “Tasting the chocolate fountain!” Her dad Steve added, “This is truly amazing — the decorations, the food … what an awesome night!” Another girl was overheard asking her dad in a high-pitched voice of glee, “My friend said there’s a chocolate fountain… do you think there can be such a thing?!”

But the chocolate fountain wasn’t the only source of fun. Marisa Cawley led a team of over 20 volunteers to transform both the upstairs and downstairs of Bruno’s BBQ into a magical undersea world, with colorful fish, jellyfish, and seahorses.

Each girl received a beautiful tiara, and enjoyed dancing, a magician, face painting, free Italian ices from Rita’s, and scrumptious finger foods. A wide array of raffle prizes appealed to the girls and their escorts, including many gracious donations from local businesses, horseback riding lessons, tickets to sporting events, and gift baskets suitable for young and old. Besides the popular chocolate fountain, there was a free “candy bar” filled with lots of delicious treats.

When asked what he thought of the night, Trent Tessler was beaming: “It’s a great thing to bring all of the dad’s and daughters together. We’ll do it again!”

Which naturally leads to the question, will this become an annual tradition? When Mrs. Cawley was asked amidst all of the smiling girls, she said, “It was a lot of hard work, but I couldn’t have done it without all of the great volunteers, particularly Natalie Bradley and Heidi Denger, who led the decorations effort. Looking around now, seeing how much fun everyone is having, it was so worth it, and we’ll definitely do it again!”

Derek Timm, president of the SVEF added, “I want to thank Marisa and the whole team for putting together this new and special event, and also thank Rosanna Herrera for her generous donation of Bruno’s BBQ as the venue for the event and all of the local businesses that donated prizes. When Marisa approached us with this idea, we were thrilled, but this is only the first of new things to come from SVEF this year. Initial results show that the event netted over $9,000, 100% of which will support programs at our great Scotts Valley Schools.”

As always, 100% of the proceeds from the “Daughter and Me” dance will benefit all four schools in the Scotts Valley Unified School District. SVEF has contributed over $700,000 in the last 5 years to our schools, and the “Daughter and Me” dance is just the latest event to both bring the community together and raise much-needed funds for our schools. We’ll have to wait and see what SVEF has in store next for our community!