Pirates escort helpful parents

Alicia Robinson

With his eye patch, gold-hoop earring and tri-corner hat, Mike

Stevens would have made a convincing pirate -- except he was piloting

an electric boat instead of a sailing ship.

Dressed in his swashbuckling finest, Stevens spent Saturday

afternoon ferrying parents of Lincoln Elementary School students to

Newport Beach waterfront restaurants to thank them for helping raise

money for the school.

“How do girls wear earrings? This thing is killing me!” Stevens

jovially complained after getting behind the wheel of one of six

vessels Duffy Electric Boats provided for the event.

Guests at the floating party were made up of about 50 parents who

donated a total of $35,000 toward supplemental programs at Lincoln

Elementary School in Corona del Mar. About $80,000 more is expected

from a fundraising dinner and auction set for Friday at the Balboa

Bay Club.

The money pays for tangible learning tools -- classroom supplies

and computers -- and the conduits of education themselves, teachers.

For example, the school district provides physical education for

fourth- through sixth-grade students, but parental fundraising pays

for a gym teacher for the rest of the students.

“It’s almost like having your child in a private school,” said

Laura Stevens, the wife of the earringed boat captain. The couple has

a daughter in first grade at the school.

On Saturday, guests enjoyed a boat ride from Duffy’s dock to the

Harborside Restaurant on the Balboa Peninsula and then the Cannery

restaurant in the Rhine Channel, where they ate, drank and

socialized.

Parent volunteers have been raising extra money for the school for

some time, but the fundraising has taken off over the last five

years, said Liz Kennedy, president of the school’s PTA.

“Every year it gets larger, because the funding that we get from

the state every year decreases,” she said. “This community is so

generous. They really support the school in a big way.”

That help has been invaluable for giving the students the best

education possible, said Lincoln Elementary Principal Jane Holm, who

was reached at the school Friday.

“We have all kinds of enrichments and specialized programs and

teachers that they pay for,” Holm said. “Without the funds from the

parents ... we’d certainly cover core content and the stuff we need

to cover, but they just provide so many enriching experiences for our

kids.”

Kennedy noted that Lincoln has been named a blue ribbon school --

a federal recognition of academic excellence. Other parents at

Saturday’s party said the secret to the school’s success is the

parents devoting their time to it.

“We love Lincoln,” said Laura Stevens. “In fact, everybody here is

heavily involved with the school.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.