About Us
The PLHS Pointer Association
The Pointer Association is a 501c3 nonprofit organization consisting of parents/families, students, alumni, faculty and other community members serving Point Loma High School.
Our Mission
The public and charitable purposes of The Pointer Association (PA) are to raise funds to enhance the education at Point Loma High School, to promote the activities of alumni of Point Loma High School, and to engage in any other lawful activities permitted under the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law.
The Pointer Association:
- Is the school’s sole adult fundraising organization.
- Conducts fundraising activities and events to raise money to support capital campaigns and ongoing programs and initiatives (called Pointer Priorities).
- Serves as the umbrella group for PLHS PA Booster Groups, each of which has its own elected officers.
- Is guided by an elected Board of Directors and elected officers.
- Maintains a database of PLHS alumni so we can help them stay connected with their alma mater and classmates, and so that reunion chairs can find them with news of reunion events.
- Seeks to help Point Loma community members to connect with their high school to increase PLHS’s value as a community asset.
The Point Loma High School Pointer Association, the sole adult fundraising organization supporting PLHS, is a merger of three organizations each of which supported PLHS in its own way. In order to understand our mission and goals it is important to remember our history.
PL Foundation History
The high school’s original foundation primarily raised funds for classroom gifts and grants to help teachers do a better job for our community’s kids. In good years, these gifts and grants totaled in the tens of thousands of dollars and were a resource quite valued by the faculty and staff.
Point Loma 2000
A separate community-based organization called “Point Loma 2000” was formed in 1994 to raise money for major capital improvement projects at the school. It raised about $400,000 in its six-year history. The lockers in the 300 building and the outdoor seating in the quad were two of this group’s more visible projects.
PLHS Alumni Association
The Alumni Association, founded in 1976, performed the traditional role of helping alums to connect (or re-connect) with their school and their classmates, and served as the custodian of the school’s memorabilia. They collected and maintained a database of alumni contact records for more than 30 years. The original alumni association also started our annual scholarship program for graduating seniors.
The Merger
The challenge of merging these three organizations – each with its own history, agenda, budget and funding sources, style of doing business, and significant organizational ego – extended over several years. It was not easy, as you might imagine. But finally it was all done in the year 2000
PLHSPA
And very shortly thereafter, the school formally designated the newly combined PLHSPA as its sole adult fundraising organization. Clearly, the school’s leadership and administrative staff benefit from the streamlining and convenience of having a single point of contact for all school-related adult fundraising activities.
At the time of the merger, the first PLHSPA President, Pete Wheeler, observed, “Working separately, the three groups have accomplished much. Working together, there’s no limit to what we can do.” The PLHSPA Board works hard to remain true to the original goals of each of our founding organizations as we fulfill our Mission: "The public and charitable purposes of The Pointer Association (PA) are to raise funds to enhance the education at Point Loma High School, to promote the activities of alumni of Point Loma High School, and to engage in any other lawful activities permitted under the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law."