Supporting alumni of Fairfield Elementary School
This site was created by The Neu Family to promote the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship Fund.
These photos depicting Fairfield School memories from the 1980s show how much things have changed.
Memories from 1981-1986
There were Pony rides . . .
There were pony rides to be won at the Halloween potluck
And old-fashioned school buses.
Also known as a hay ride
Ernie Pfanner's effort to reopen Fairfield School following its closing in 1978 is described in this article from California Farmer shared by Carolyn Pfanner at the Fairfield 150 celebrations (see below).
Photo of article highlighting Ernie Pfanner's effort to reopen Fairfield, leading "Ernie's Army" of supporters. Ernie is seen as a Fairfield student in the class photo at the bottom (he is in the back row on the right).
The articles depicts the unique rural school element to Fairfield that has been a source of diversity and connection to the agricultural heritage of Davis.
It also highlights the rural "can-do" spirit that has often guided Fairfield's parent participation and efforts to get things done to improve the school for its students. For example, Pfanner was able to cut the cost of a reopening the school by doing things like bringing in his own pump repairman to look at a broken water pump that was budgeted at $2,200 to replace: it turned out it only needed a new $10 valve.
“Pfanner says that if rural people are left alone they can work things out for themselves. There are still rural people in California who can get the job done within the system. ‘We faced a solid wall of opposition to the school when we started, but through dedication the job was accomplished,’ Pfanner says. ”
Having grown up in a small rural town in the Sierras, the rural element and its can-do spirit were also a big part of what my mother loved about Fairfield.
As noted a few days back, Linda Book introduced her performance of the Fairfield School Song at the 150th birthday celebration by talking about how it was born.
Note how the school students contributed to the lyrics - that's cool.
Also, there were two songs in the running and she convinced my Mom to go with the the ballad over the upbeat "pep" song.
A song is born
Speaking of Linda Book, as I told her last weekend, her song for Mrs Neu has taken on new meaning for me . . .
. . . especially since the Memorial Video (see below).
Again, thanks Linda!
Linda Book with Barbara Neu
Linda Book sings the Fairfield School song she wrote in 1993 on the occasion of Fairfield's 150th Birthday last Saturday.
Most future recipients of the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship should know this song (and its signs) by heart.
As Linda explained in introducing the song, Mrs Neu (it was written during her tenure at Fairfield) was not in favor of a ballad at first and wanted her to do something more upbeat. However, Linda convinced her in the end to go with it. As the song has endured, I think my mother would agree it was the right call. Click here for the full song. Thanks Linda!
For more Linda Book songs visit LindaBook.com
Memories shared at the Fairfield 150 celebration May 7 at the school in Davis, CA included this one about how Ernie Pfanner, who had attended the school as a young boy, helped reopen Fairfield in 1982. Carolyn Pfanner, who did the sharing (with support from Eileen O'Farrell), is a Fairfield icon and repository of stories and historical facts about the school.
She was also a school bus driver and drove on a field trip to Dillon Beach that my father organized for Emerson students when I was a young boy. It included a bit of a roller-coaster ride in a large bus on some windy roads and around cliff-turns that is still etched in my boyhood memory.
As the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship is to be an Endowed Scholarship Fund, meant to exist in perpetuity to carry out its stated purpose, it is important to get the donated funds invested appropriately. The Sacramento Region Community Foundation will for its affiliate, the Yolo Community Foundation, invest the money designated to the fund via its selected investment advisor, Colonial Consulting LLC.
Like all endowed funds, the market value of the fund will help us establish an appropriate scholarship amount (or scholarships, if we deem fit) to ensure that the Fund retains enough money to award scholarships every year into the future without tapping the principal (or fund corpus). To accomplish this, the money donated to the fund is invested in a portfolio of stocks and bonds, much like a 401 K, and the return on this invested capital is what is used to pay the scholarship recipients and the fees associated with running a fund with a community foundation.
To get a better idea of what the financial side looks like, we refer to the Sacramento Region Community Foundation's Investment Overview.
This is the indicative asset allocation for an endowed fund.
Source: Sacramento Region Community Foundation Investment Overview
With endowment fund investments, the investment goal are as follows:
“Investment Goals
• To earn a sufficient long term return to preserve the purchasing power of the assets, after annual grants of 4% and annual support fees averaging 1.3%, plus cost of living increases; and
• To earn this return with as little volatility as possible.”
The key goal is to have the fund's return on investments meet the desired scholarship amount with an annual distribution of 4% of the fund’s balance. Of course, the YCF/SacRegCF charges a fee for its services as does their investment advisor, and these fees must be factored into how much the fund pays out each year. Each Community Foundation has its own guidelines for this, set in accordance with the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA).
Unfortunately, investment results of late have not been what they once were (see below). If this continues, we may be required to raise additional funds to make up for the lack of investment returns, or reduce or pause the scholarship payouts, in order to ensure the longevity of the scholarship.
Investment results, lately, have not been what they once were - hope we get back to a 10% return.
Barbara Neu's children announce the memorial scholarship project to Fairfield community at the 150th Anniversary party last Saturday.
Barbara Archer shared this great photo from Fairfield Elementary's 150th Birthday Party!
Here are three ways you can help:
We have already received suggestions and ideas that will require volunteers to make them happen. Keep the ideas coming and we'll share the ones that need engagement. Thank you!
We enjoyed meeting Elizabeth via Virginia and learning about the Reardon family history with Fairfield. Four generations (and counting) of Fairfield alumni in that family!
I loved this artboard of photos, memorabilia and paintings
What are your memories from Fairfield?
One of the ideas suggested at the Fairfield 150 celebration was to ask alumni to share a fond memory from their time at Fairfield, including how it might have helped them later on in life.
This will help show how the scholarship is consistent with the Fairfield experience serving its students well throughout their life.
Inspired by the timeline...share your Fairfield memories.
To share, leave a comment or send an email and we will create a memory post (send to memories@mrsneufund.org). If you'd prefer to share anonomyously, please note this in your email. You can also share on our Facebook page.
Despite the clouds and some misty rain that fortunately stopped for the festivities, we all had a great day at Fairfield.
Most gratifying was gaining so much more insight and appreciation for the history of the school our mother loved so dearly.
The more you know, the more there is to love about Fairfield.
Thanks to Mary Ryan and Jonathan Defty for allowing us to update everyone on the scholarship.
The Neu Family effort to create a memorial scholarship for Fairfield School students makes The Davis Enterprise.
“The family of the late Barbara Neu, a longtime and beloved teacher at Fairfield School west of Davis, has created a memorial scholarship in her name.”
The Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship (aka the Mrs Neu Fund) is now on Facebook!
According to the Sac Reg Community Foundation framework, the basic process for a Scholarship Fund follows a timeline like this:
From the Sacramento Region Community Foundation information sheet on Scholarship Funds, Click on the image to see a pdf of the full document.
Essentially, we need to be fully ready to go by November to offer a scholarship next year.
So exciting to see the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship Fund listed on the fund list page of the SacReg Community Foundation website!
Our fund is listed at the bottom under the Yolo Community Foundation heading
We are pleased to say that we received our official welcome letter for the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship from the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, on behalf of the Yolo Community Foundation. It feels more like we are official now.
But as the letter notes:
“If the endowment is fully funded this year, there should be an ‘available to spend’ amount in 2017. And, of course, we still need to develop the selection criteria and awards process.”
Accordingly, we still need your help:
Today, May 3, is the BIG Day of Giving for the regional community foundations around the Sacramento area. Consider giving.
The Neu Family is pleased to have been invited to the Fairfield School Reunion party to take place at the Village Homes Clubhouse after the official festivities at the school on May 7. We will be attending both events to share information about the Barbara Neu Memorial Scholarship and solicit support.
We hope to see you there.
It's somehow appropriate to be visiting the Village Homes site, as Mrs. Neu set up a primary school there back in the late 1970's (The New Cooperative Primary School) - see photos below.
Anne Ternus-Bellamy has a write-up with some additional history on Fairfield School on The Davis Enterprise website (April 27, 2016). The more you know . . . the more you should want to come to the 150th Anniversary Celebration next Saturday.
“Surrounded by farms, the school is one of the most unique campuses used by Davis children. And standing in the gardens outside, it’s not hard to imagine what it was like to attend school here 150 years ago.
Back then, according to records dating from the 1870s, Fairfield served 29 Yolo County students. The school was originally located 5 miles west of Davis on the northwest corner of County Roads 31 and 95 on land donated by Albert Henle, an early pioneer farmer in the North Putah area.”
Established May 7, 1866, wow!
Bringing out smiles when they were needed
This woman, "Taka", got us through the final days with my mother. At the one-month mark, today, of my mother's passing, it is a still a strongly sad memory. . . but looking at this photo with Taka, she brought smiles even so.
Having experienced hospice care first-hand for the first time with my mother, it is truly amazing that people dedicate themselves to this profession. They all deserve our thanks and support.
Perhaps more amazing still is how many Fijians in the US have made caregiving and especially end-of-life-care their calling. This article in The Press Democrat (Sonoma County, CA) puts it in some perspective:
“[Fijian care-givers] joined a growing community of expatriate Fijians in Sonoma County that Dr. Narayan Raju, the honorary consul for Fiji in San Francisco, estimates at about 600. Some within the local Fijian community believe they could number 1,000 or more, and an extraordinarily high percentage of them, by some estimates as much as 90 percent, are or have been caregivers.
Eritrean, Filipino and some Latino immigrants also have taken to caregiving, but the Fijians have claimed it both as a family business and a religious calling. Most have a strong Christian faith, primarily Methodist and evangelical, and call upon that as motivation to attend to others.”
Whatever the reason for this culture of compassion, we are thankful that we had one of these immigrants from the South Pacific islands of Fiji by our side to the end, bringing smiles.
