East Longmeadow Public Schools staff, parents, supports and community members helped raise nearly $21,000 for student opportunities at East Village Tavern on Oct. 21.
Photo credit: Chris McKinnon
EAST LONGMEADOW — The East Longmeadow Educational Enrollment Fund held its annual Celebrity Bartender event on Oct. 21 at East Village Tavern, raising $20,842 to expand educational opportunities for ELPS students.
ELEEF began in 1995 to support and strengthen public education in East Longmeadow. The organization works with educators, families and the community to expand opportunities beyond what the budget can provide.
The organization’s proceeds are invested through its endowment, and the returns are distributed through annual grants for teachers.
ELEEF originally raised $100,000 in 1995 and the investment has grown to $1.5 million.
The Celebrity Bartender event brought together teachers, parents, school supporters, alumni and local business leaders to form eight teams and compete as bartenders.
Participants raced to raise the most money through donations and tips. Last year’s event raised $5,200, making this year’s total four-times higher.
The winning team, Click It or IT Ticket, raised $5,452 alone. The runner ups, The Class of 2007: Serving Up Detention, raised $4,170.
The View Crew from Mountain View Elementary School was the top school fundraising group, bringing in $2,834, and East Village Tavern provided a $1,000 donation.
ELEEF Vice President Chris McKinnon said the organization knew it had to “elevate” this year’s event. ELEEF holds three events each year to run the grant program.
“We wanted to bring in new people,” McKinnon said. “We wanted to bring in local people within the community, so we had our five schools represented. Each of the five schools put together a team of teachers or administrators that served on the team.”
He said he knew the event needed to be bigger, so ELEEF turned it into a competition.
Each team had their own websites where friends, families or community members could donate directly to. Donations and teams were displayed on a leaderboard throughout every TV in the restaurant.
“[Click It or IT Ticket] really amped up the donations across the whole competition,” McKinnon said. “They basically led and going into the night, a lot of people started to donate to get their teams to first place.”
Going into the event, ELEEF had already raised $8,000, and McKinnon said the group would have been excited to even just double last year’s proceeds.
“We were already blown away and we didn’t know how far this would go,” McKinnon said. “As soon as we hit $10,000, everybody was pretty happy and then it just kept going. We were, sort of, astonished at the level of people giving, people caring, participating in this … I think it was a ‘feel good’ moment for not only the Board of Directors of ELEEF, but each of the teams that really, really competed. I think it opened their eyes to, you know, people are willing to support them, which is really cool.”
McKinnon said one of the most memorable moments of the night was seeing the room become excited for the leaderboard. He said he remembers seeing two $500 donations back-to-back.
“That was amazing,” McKinnon said. “I think the most impactful moment was at the end of the night, because all donations stop right at 9 p.m. Four minutes before, the second place team that had been following [Click It or IT Ticket] all night came into first and the whole bar erupted. Then, with one minute left, a $1,000 donation came in to pull Click It or IT Ticket to win it. It was just pretty incredible.”
ELEEF’s next event, a Winter Gala, will take place on Feb. 6, 2027. The gala is the organization’s main fundraising event.
Tickets are available at eleef.org/events.
