Gala 2026 Recap

This year, gala guests encountered some changes. The auction items were in a shady redwood grove and the dance floor was in the center of the main space. The shady auction, set to a smooth yacht rock soundtrack, brought in 35% more than last year, with bidders in captain's hats, feathered hair, and jumpsuits cruising from table to table. By eight o'clock the dance floor was overflowing. I watched a man I know from the soccer sidelines throw both arms in the air and shout the lyrics to "Pink Pony Club" along with dozens of casual acquaintances.

All night, people were joyful. Not polite-happy, the kind where you smile at someone's casserole, but truly comfortable, the way you are with neighbors who have seen you in your pajamas at drop-off. Much of that mood is set by our hostess, Patti Hughes, who for over two decades has opened her property to LPEF and understands that a place is only as good as the people you gather in it.

The good vibes also ushered in good profits. We took in $253,000 from tickets, sponsorships, hosted parties, top hat donations, the auctions, and drinks. Expenses were $72,000, mostly catering, lighting and sound, rentals, and vacation packages we auctioned off. That means $181,000 for our schools, about $30,000 more than last year. The community came together to donate auction items, sponsor, host parties, and more people dropped money into the top hat, which this year funds a play yard makeover at Loma and C.T.

At Loma Elementary, LPEF funds paid for this year's art, music, and PE, and helped keep classes small enough that a teacher can sit for longer with a child over a tricky word problem. It is the difference between a third grader who has never touched a recorder and one who can, after weeks of heroic squeaking, play a recognizable tune. It is the basketball court, where children learn perseverance by missing the same shot ten times and trying again. It is being seen for your creativity by an adult whose job is to notice.

At C.T. English Middle School, LPEF funds paid for Spanish, art, and computer science this year. That means a 7th grader learning to count in another language, a 13-year-old working out what he feels in charcoal because he doesn't yet have the words, and a middle schooler gaining insight into how the digital world she already lives in actually works. None of this can be taken for granted. It exists because neighbors decided to make it so.

We are enormously grateful to everyone who came, bid, sponsored, donated, volunteered, and rejoiced. The children may never know about the dancing, but they will experience what it made possible.