Today, all I want to do is express my sincere gratitude to the CA community for your amazing support for this year’s CA Gives Day! Gifts are still coming in, but the engagement and support have truly gone beyond our expectations. CA added a number of new donors at leadership giving levels, as many of you increased your gifts over previous years. Many new families gave for the first time, and longtime members of the CA community continued with another year in their consecutive years of giving. Every parent challenge was met, and a new alumni challenge helped CA renew connections.
As I explained in a recent blog, our tuition does not cover the actual cost of a CA education. The CA Fund covers that gap. Your contributions to The CA Fund allow us to offer great and innovative programming for all students, provide financial aid, support CA teachers, and above all, ensure we are living up to our mission.
When my children were young, I was fly fishing with a wise gentleman who had grown children. He explained to me that there are three core things we most provide to our children: values, memories, and an education. Your being part of the CA community is testimony to the commitment you are making to enrich the lives of your children. Your gifts demonstrate your values every time you drop them off at school, watch a game, attend a parent/teacher conference, or visit a classroom.
No matter what size gift, every gift matters and makes a difference on this campus. The display of support demonstrated Thursday is truly humbling. We would love to see parent participation levels for each grade increase, and we’ll be sharing some fun ways to get involved with this in the coming weeks. I hope that you are motivated by knowing that your gift helps CA be a stronger institution.
I started CA Gives Day by waving to those families dropping off their kids. Granted, Gus, the Mustang mascot, was with me, but the smiles and joy in those moments signaled that it was going to be a pretty special day. In the afternoon, I tried to connect with many donors to express my gratitude. Each person responded with their own thank you back to me—and to the entire CA faculty and staff—for the work we are doing to educate and care for students in these challenging times.
It’s moments like these that get us through the tough ones. Again, thank you for investing in your child’s education by supporting CA.