Emily Brand and Isabel Lawrence
Reporters
On Sunday, Mar. 26, NCHS hosted the annual scholarship drive where students go door to door to raise money for scholarships that will send their classmates to college. While all contributions, including those from businesses and families, are appreciated, student involvement can make or break the program.
Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi, who was introduced to the program this year, fully supports its objectives. “I love the idea of Scholarship Sunday, how the students come out and actively participate in raising money to help their peers,” Dr. Luizzi said. “I love the idea of having a whole community-wide thing where businesses come in, but it’s also individual people and individual families that give any little bit that they can in order to help.”
Dr. Luizzi emphasizes how there’s no escaping the fact that college costs are rising. “The cost of college is so high and it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, we’re in New Canaan, nobody has any need,’ but people have need,” Dr. Luizzi said. “It’s expensive to live, let alone to try to put people through college, multiple kids.”
Because there is a lot of preparation that goes into organizing Scholarship Sunday, a committee of co-chairs has been organizing the scholarship with high hopes for this year. Co-chair Annette Terry explains why it is important to advertise the event and communicate with businesses. “This event provides students with financial aid who want to attend the college of their choice,” she said.
Last year more than $36,000 were raised and over 76 students received scholarship money. In hopes of meeting, and exceeding, last year’s earnings, co-chair Lisa Isherwood highlighted the need for student involvement. “We’re hoping that we can exceed the amount of donations from last year. I wish we could award money to everyone who needs it,” co-chair Lisa Isherwood said. “One hundred percent participation is a dream, if all kids came out, rain or shine, and walked and encouraged each other as a group, then we could get more students to participate.”
Fellow co-chair, Mrs. Terry, agreed with Mrs. Isherwood regarding total student participation. “I think 200 signed up, at least, 200, so I’m hoping that they all show up. Sometimes kids don’t sign up in the cafeteria and those kids will come,” Mrs. Terry said.
The kids who signed up and came on Sunday were the victims of rainy weather. All was not bad, however, the drizzle actually working in favor of some students strategies. Sophomore Alex Terry gave insight as to what her plan would be while en-route. “Smile, look friendly, and the rain might help because people will feel bad for us,” Alex said.
The weather conditions not only worked for student tactics, however. The forecast kept New Canaanites in their homes when students collected donations. Mrs. Mallozzi certainly felt this way, “I think the rain is wonderful. More people will be home instead of being outside enjoying the great day,” she said. “It’s the perfect day.” Besides just being able to catch residents in their homes, Mrs. Mallozzi felt confident knowing that the whole community understands the importance of this drive.
For the returning volunteers, it is understood that not everyone is going to open up their wallets to donate. Students were briefed on safety procedures and how to act while going door to door, but were encouraged to try and incorporate their own charm and patience. “You’ve just got to be nice, if they don’t want to donate you’ve just got to walk away,” said sophomore Michael Dicosmo, participating in his second Scholarship Sunday with the volunteer group SLOBS.
SLOBS was not the only group participating in Scholarship Sunday. The sports teams, specifically softball and girls’ track, also made appearances to raise money together. Sophomore and track athlete Keaton McAuliffe understood why track coach Art Brown emphasized the volunteer work. “It’s the most important thing to help kids in your town who need help, and [Coach Brown] wants as many people as possible to join the cause,” she said. “By advertising that to the track team, he really thinks that it’s going to help get a lot of people involved.”
With a raised total of $29,234.00 this year, Scholarship Sunday emphasizes New Canaan’s sense of community and support, the whole town bonding together in order to help our own. Freshman Deven Appel saw this team effort first hand. “It was fun seeing people actually care,” he said. “It’s important because people actually do have trouble going to college, and having the community help them out, it really supports everyone, and it shows we’re strong.”
