Your Support in Action
The Christmas House Tour is the biggest fundraiser for the St. Albans Parents’ Association and traditionally supports initiatives such as the faculty grants program, faculty and staff appreciation programs, faculty bonuses, and a student visual arts fellowship program. Faculty grants, in particular, have provided equipment, technology, faculty professional development, and unique demonstrations and lessons that have enhanced the classroom experience and enriched the athletic, arts, and extracurricular opportunities for all students. Language Department MacBook Air laptops and tablets, the theater’s wireless microphone system and LED lighting, athletic program training equipment, and the fabulous blacksmith workshop are only a few examples of the classroom and campus enhancements made possible by the generosity of the Christmas House Tour sponsors and participants.
More importantly this year, the Parents’ Association has the opportunity to help St. Albans defray those unexpected costs associated with its planning and response to the Covid pandemic. Last spring, in lieu of the faculty grants program, the Parents’ Association contributed financial support to a “Resiliency Fund” to help St. Albans provide effective distance learning, support a variety of faculty needs, and otherwise address those unexpected costs associated with the ongoing pandemic. The Parents’ Association was both humbled and honored to assist in this way, and it has been gratifying to witness, for example, the amazing enhancement of the distance-learning classroom experience this fall with the addition of DTEN interactive monitors. And although we hope for a return to the normal faculty grant process next spring, the Parents’ Association stands ready to provide additional support if St. Albans’ pandemic needs extend into 2021.
So we give special thanks to everyone for their support of the Christmas House Tour in this unusual year. We are grateful that this St. Albans community, which always rises to the cause of our faculty, our staff, and especially our boys, will embrace this opportunity and come together as a community to make this event a success.