Students signed up in the cafeteria this week to participate in the scholarship drive this Sunday.
Casey Manzella
Features Editor
This Sunday students will gather in the auxiliary gym at noon to participate in the annual Scholarship Sunday drive to raise money for the New Canaan High School Scholarship Fund. After receiving their regional assignments, teams of students will head out to go door to door soliciting donations from New Canaan residents. “In the past Scholarship Sunday has ranged from very successful to extremely successful,” Assistant Principal Ari Rothman said. “People in the community, when they see kids committed to helping each other, are going to be a little more generous.”
Although New Canaan is one of the most affluent towns in the nation, there is still a need for financial aid among the community. “The cost of college is about $60,000 a year and most families, even in New Canaan, can’t simply write a check for $60,000,” Mr. Rothman said. “Aid is not as plentiful as it used to be and so, therefore, anyway that a community can support its students in college is important.”
For students, the ability to help their peers is an excellent opportunity. “Scholarship Sunday is a really fun way to raise money for people in our school to go to college,” junior Beth Kelley said. “It’s really great because it’s helping people we actually know.”
Scholarship Sunday can also be a fun opportunity for students to spend time with friends. “It’s really a blast to go around and do it with friends,” junior Steven Singer said. “There’s a lot of stories that you’ll exchange or be a part of on Scholarship Sunday.”
Some of these stories turn into fun memories. “I remember our freshman year we had one of the dads drive us around and we would hop in and out of the trunk because that was the fastest way to move from house to house,” Steven sai. “There was a lot of coordination going on so I thought that was a particularly fun and memorable experience from Scholarship Sunday.”
Scholarship Sunday also helps strengthen the sense of community in New Canaan. “Scholarship Sunday is one of the most impressive and meaningful traditions that we have,” Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi said. “It also helps define what it means to live in New Canaan in the spirit of generosity and caring for others.”
A group of last year’s graduating class helped raise over $30,000 on Scholarship Sunday last year.
This year, Dr. Luizzi hopes students will break tradition to increase donations. “It would be fun if students decided to try to tweet the amount of money they were collecting using hashtags,” he said. “There might be some competition in all of this.”
Dr. Luizzi has big goals for this year. “Last year we raised a little over $30,000 and I would love to raise $35,000 this year or more,” he said. “I would also love to see everybody get involved in some way.”
Participation is key to successfully raise money. “If Scholarship Sunday is successful then a lot of kids from all different grades have come out to help and ultimately the foundation can award as much scholarship money as possible,” Mr. Rothman said. “That’s what makes it successful.”
Students also encourage their peers to participate. “Just try it. It’s only two or three hours out of your day on a Sunday,” Steven said. “I guarantee that people would love to go out and participate again once they have actually experienced it.”
Those two or three hours also have an impact on the community. “One of the things I love about Scholarship Sunday is the way it demonstrates our values around education,” Dr. Luizzi said. “This ethic of care and volunteerism is helping other people to better themselves through education. That is a value that I personally hold, so to see that value reflected in the greater community is awe inspiring.”
