8/3/2006

Over just eight months, Metairie Park Country Day School’s donors broke the School’s all-time fundraising record – and that record was for an entire fiscal year! In the face of crisis, support came from across the nation. Here in Metairie and New Orleans, people put aside their own financial concerns and made extraordinary gifts to help pay the one-time expense of reconstruction and remediation work necessitated by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding. Across the country, we received gifts from alumni, grandparents, former faculty, and foundations who would not normally consider a grant to an independent K-12 outside of their geographic region. However, Country Day is a remarkable place and our story, carried forth by our friends near and far, was compelling.

As we enter the 2006-2007 school year, we have received gifts and pledge for the Katrina Recovery Effort in excess of $3.9 million. We hope to raise the remaining $1.1 million quickly, and have many grant proposals and solicitations out to members of our community. We hope to close this chapter in our accounting books, be we will never close this chapter of our lives. We have all been touched by a compassion which might never have been realized but for this disaster. What a waste that would have been! We will carry this wonderful gift with us, as will the students of Country Day, for a lifetime.

Thanks to all of the wonderful donors who helped make history at Country Day!