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St. Luke’s School Raises $17,833 for Filling in the Blanks
At the first Service Board meeting after St. Luke’s at Home began, the Board was eager to come up with an idea that would bring the community together. This group of students devoted to creating and promoting service opportunities throughout the SLS community realized that in the midst of our physical distancing some unifying effort would be important. Within minutes, the idea of a Virtual 5K took hold and the group ran with it. “Our lacrosse coach would be all over this,” co-president Kayleigh Bowler ‘20 noted, and with that, it seemed natural to coordinate with the Athletic Department to get the support of all the athletic teams. The Virtual 5K to Outrun Hunger was launched.
It was easy choosing an organization as the beneficiary of our event. St. Luke’s School has had an active partnership with Filling in the Blanks since they were founded in 2013. The work they do providing weekend meals for students supported by free and reduced lunches in schools has become especially important as schools closed. The co-founders of Filling in the Blanks, St. Luke’s parent Tina Kramer and Shawnee Knight were quick to offer resources from their organization so that we could create registration and fundraising pages for the event.
Within a week, we had the full support of our spring sports teams with all of the Varsity captains and coaches getting their team members involved. The Middle School Type One Diabetes Club volunteered to promote it within the middle school—that group as much as any in the school appreciates the need for good nutrition—and middle school students started signing up. Families, friends, clubs...the list of participants swelled quickly. The community was coming together in support of a great cause. The modest registration fee was more than matched by generous donations, and by the time the event came around, there were 368 participants signed up, plus $10,473 donated, bringing the grand total to $17,833.
About 80 participants gathered via Zoom during afternoon spring sports time so that we could celebrate the work that we were doing. You can watch the gathering in the attached video. The excitement about the event was felt by everyone. Tina Kramer said, “we are so grateful and overwhelmed by the incredible generosity of the St. Luke’s community. Thank you for your commitment to fighting childhood hunger.” Co-founder Shawnee added, “St. Lukes students and families show up! This virtual event far exceeded expectations and is a real testament to the values the school is instilling in their students.”
Please see Head of School Mark Davis interview St. Luke’s parents Tina Kramer and Kristin Thomas about their work Filling in the Blanks—part of our SLSHeroes series.
You can view all the "unselfies" here
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 35 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
