Home and garden tour grows money for local schools

Andrew Edwards

Tickets to Saturday’s Open Doors Home and Garden Tour are sold out,

which means local schools stand to make $20,000. .

Tour sponsors sold 500 tickets at $40 a pop to benefit Huntington

Beach City School District’s 10 schools, said Cathy Meschuk,

Huntington Beach Education Foundation’s executive director.

The foundation will make sure the profits are spent in the

classroom.

“Every penny in this goes to the schools,” said Donna Horn,

chairwoman of the volunteer tour committee.

The foundation annually sponsors the event with help from the

Huntington Beach Art Center. Now in its fifth year, the fundraiser is

always scheduled on the Saturday before Mother’s Day.

“It fits into Mother’s Day very nicely,” Meschuk said.

Money raised at previous tours has helped subsidize a variety of

programs in Surf City classrooms from math games to band instruments

to a lesson on the American Revolution featuringstudents in period

costumes reliving history, Meschuk said.

The tour’s itinerary focuses on a range of architectural styles,

from the Andalusian stylings of the presidential suite at the Hyatt

Huntington Beach Resort and Spa to an old-style Victorian home

replica that was actually built in 2002. Six locations will be

featured during the tour.

“We have a nice mix here,” Horn said.

Lynn Foster’s Tuscan-style residence will also be on the tour.

Foster said she agreed to open her family’s home to the public

because the tour raises money for education.

“I think it’s a really good cause, helping out the public

schools,” Foster said.