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Date: 9/28/2022
SPRINGFIELD – It looked like a typical class reunion with old friends greeting each other and talking, but the 65th reunion of the class of 1957 from Classical High School had a secondary meeting.
The class, which has been supporting the Donors Choose program since 2008, has made contributions supporting the city’s teachers. The result has been more than $3.5 million in funding to fulfill the needs of the city’s teachers.
Laurence Derose, a member of the alumni gift team, described the amount to Reminder Publishing as “staggering.”
Derose explained that Donors Choose allows teachers to ask for grants to pay for any number of classroom needs. The Class of 1957 took $10,000 it had and invested it, doubling that amount. Initially the idea was to turn over that money to the school department, but Derose said that Donors Choose allows for the funding of specific projects and material needs for individual teachers.
The teachers described their needs on the Donors Choose website and potential donors can completely or partially fund the proposal.
Donors Choose, Derose added, then seeks additional funds from philanthropic organizations that often match the amount contributed by other donors.
For the Class of 1957, the amount that has gone to Springfield teachers is, as of Sept. 21, $3.5 million.
“It’s the combination of all the funds that went directly to teachers in the Springfield public school system,” he said.
Derose and the other members of the gift committee announced the figure at the reunion, unfurling a banner and then giving Mayor Domenic Sarno an additional sign to unveil with the latest donation amount.
Sarno congratulated and thanked the class for the support they have been giving.
One teacher wrote Donors Choose about the funding for a headphone project for her class, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting my students! This project helped 100 kindergarten and grade 1 students to hear what they are learning on computers without interruptions from daily classroom noises. I will be continuing to try to fund many more headphones and be able to allow all the students I teach a pair of headphones to use throughout the school year.”
Another teacher noted, “Students ARE READING! What a small toy can do, a small item of recognition that says, ‘You read that book! GOOD JOB. Pick something for yourself because you were successful! You accomplished something great!’ Students LIGHT UP. No better way to describe it. And the things the kids pick! So cute! The cool monkey, the crazy ninja, the basketball pen. I can never guess what a student will choose, but every one of them has the same look, eyes shining with excitement when they pick their choice prize. Every one of the kids says, ‘Thank you,’ and I hope those words waft on the wind straight to your ear, because I let them know that YOU bought these incentives gifts for them.”
More than 200 projects have been funded, Derose said.
“This is rapidly becoming our class legacy,” Derose said.