On Wednesday, Nov. 25, Cathedral Prep held their annual Giving Day event, where the community of Prep and Villa donate money to provide for the Annual Fund.
For those who don’t know, the Annual Fund is known as “the cornerstone of Cathedral Prep.” The Fund compromises unrestricted giving from all sources that support school programs and activities. Things such as teacher salaries, scholarship aid, library books, technology and building maintenance are all funded in part by the annual giving. Without this fund, tuition would have to be raised in order to support these programs. The Annual Fund allows the school to keep tuition at an affordable level for families in the Erie area.
Mr. Steve Piotrowicz, the Annual Fund Manager and Mrs. Lauren Varner, Vice President of Advancement, have been working together on Giving Day for the past three years at Cathedral Prep. Their time as Giving Day directors have seen some of the biggest student turnouts in the history of the event.
This past year’s donation total passed that of last year’s total, tallying $962,428 before the match from over 2,000 donors. Both past and present Ramblers and Victors helped in this year’s fundraising.
“Our alum from Prep and Villa continue to have a vested interest in the future success of our students,” Mr. Piotrowicz said. “Times are hard, but everyone realizes that. Everyone stepped up to the plate.”
Obviously, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there had to be changes made involving the method of donations. Therefore, Mr. Piotrowicz and Mrs. Varner were able to adjust to the circumstances by allowing students to donate in-person and electronically.
“This year was a little different regarding in-person donations,” Mr. Piotrowicz said. “With COVID-19, we did not encourage or advertise in-person donations besides from the students. As far as online, our IT team and marketing team does a great job of making sure all potential issues are taken care of before the day.”
Probably the most impressive part of this year’s Giving Day is that there was such a large turnout, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost a million dollars were raised in total, with the tally even surprising Mr. Piotrowicz, as last year’s Giving Day amount was surpassed.
As usual, a good portion of this year’s earnings came from a lot of students. This is because they’re all looking to total at least a 65 percent participation rate for their class. If a class finishes at or over 65 percent participation, they get off of school on Feb. 8, the day after the Super Bowl.
