When busy seniors like Methus Weldon, a football player ASB member, and Matt Maher, lacrosse and DECA, decide to commit a couple of their evenings to a project, you can bet it’s pretty important to them.

The project, the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation phonathon fundraiser, is actually important to a lot of adults, too, says Foundation President Carmen Villanueva.

“I think our foundation is doing a lot of great things here,” Villanueva said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know if some parents even know the foundation exists.”

With two nights of dialing for dollars, Villanueva and the participating students hope to change that.

The foundation, Villanueva said, awarded $15,000 in classroom grants last year to teachers in the Snoqualmie Valley School District. Among the grants were awards to each of the five district elementary schools.

“They are all receiving funding for their math and reading programs,” Villanueva said.

It’s great, she added, to fund these teacher requests, but the need is greater, and increasing every year.

“Last year alone… we received over $70,000 in grant requests,” she said.

This year’s phonathon goal is $20,000, which Villanueva notes, would only take a $10 donation from 2,000 families in the 3,500-family district.

Students like Weldon, Maher, ASB vice-president and Natural Helper Devon Wattenbarger, and first-year cheerleader Christina Fischer, will be making the appeal by phone Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 17 and 18, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. People can also donate on the foundation website, www.svsfoundation.org.