By Morgan Reed
On Thursday, November 20th, the Don Ferrarese Foundation, in partnership with local historian and Heritage History teacher Todd Anton, is hosting a Dinner and Dessert Auction fundraiser to benefit the WWII Greatest Generation Education Project.The event will be held at the Phelan Pizza Factory at its new location at 4264 Phelan Road from 5:30 to 7:00pm and dinner tickets are being sold for $20.
Taking his passion from the classroom to the community, Anton, an award-winning historian, author, and teacher in the Snowline School District for the last 35 years, is looking to grow his classroom from four walls at Heritage School to the entire High Desert community. Anton has founded a non-profit organization — thanks to the Don Ferrarese Charitable Foundation — entitled “Greatest Generation Education,” which will embrace the mission of impressing upon our youth throughout the High Desert, American patriotism and our veterans’ sacrifice during WWII. The Greatest Generation Education Project will also develop an “Honor Guard Funeral & Burial Service” through which families in the High Desert will have access to an honorary military tribute and funeral, including a 21-gun salute, the playing of taps, a flag folding presentation, and the presentation of the Veteran to the burial site on Anton’s WWII Jeep and WWII Bantam jeep trailer. In addition to the dinner and auction, there will be a special guest speaker, Gaylon Patella, who will share her experiences about being at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Also, Anton will be selling and signing copies of his amazing WWII book No Greater Love: Life Stories from the Men Who Saved Baseball for $20 — cash only please.
To adequately fund the programs of “Greatest Generation Education” and serve our schools and Veterans throughout our High Desert communities, Anton’s “Greatest Generation Education” program will be hosting various fundraisers, beginning with this dinner and live dessert auction. The desserts being auctioned will include homemade cheesecakes, carrot cakes, brownies, and baked goods trays made by the local retired teacher and amateur baker, Morgan Reed(who his Serrano students referred to as ‘the Brownie Guy”).Come and enjoy the program, a pasta dinner with salad and garlic bread, and partake in the bidding on numerous desserts; we will accept PayPal, checks, and/or cash for payments on auction items.The dinner and bottled water will be part of the price of admission; sodas and adult beverages will be out of pocket.
While you can pay cash at the door, we recommend that you pre-purchase your tickets at the following locations: 1) Phelan’s Pizza Factory during operating hours, and 2) Online @ Don Ferrarese Charitable Foundation: www.don-frse.com; once you register your payment, your name is on the admission list; a hard ticket won’t be necessary.
We are limiting the sales to 70 tickets due to the venue size. We hope to see you there!
