Wakefield Class of 1960
Donations

What are donations used for?

Preparation of the print Newsletter entails some production and distribution costs.  Fortunately, most of us are now willing to receive our Newsletter in electronic form, which saves a lot in postage.  Aside from the Newsletter, we do need to have a reasonable pool of seed money in our treasury in order to make good-faith deposits for contracting for services in advance around our major (5-yr) reunions.  Also, small charitable donations are occasionally made in the name of our Class.  One organization that has received nominal support from the Class of 1960 is the Arlington Outdoor Education Association.  For information on what AOEA does, see the discussion below regarding worthy things for individual classmates to support, under the heading "Donations Beyond Our Class".  Our web pages to date have not entailed any dollar costs, but providing expanding and engaging web pages will probably entail some expenditures going forward (e.g., to expedite things rather than wait until volunteer effort can accomplish labor-intensive tasks in some cases, and for other enhancements purposes).  In general, facilitating the process of keeping all classmates aware of, connected to, and interested in Wakefield 1960 - and vice versa - entails just a little bit of ongoing cost.

Periodic contributions have always been important for the Class of 1960 to stay active and stay in touch through the many not-so-profound years.  Now that our 50th is here, donations have had an even greater impact.  Picking up the costs of a number of invited guests (e.g, faculty from our high school days, persons associated with contemporary Wakefield) is one of those things that - rather than adding to the registration costs - are being taken care of from your voluntary contributions.  So if it's been a while since you contributed anything to the Class of 1960, now would be a good time to consider making a contribution to our general treasury.  See the July 2010 Newsletter for additional comments as to how your contributions are used.  (There's a link to it in the "News pages).  Make checks payable to "Wakefield H.S. Class of 1960" and mail to our P.O. box (refer to page heading).  The Class of 1960's funds are in an account that has 3 of our classmates with signature and monitoring authority.  Expenditures of your hard-earned money get good scrutiny.

For those of you that might be able to provide more substantial support, consider that the registration fee for the reunion covers a lot of things: use of the hotel banquet room on Saturday night; use of other eating/mixing rooms for the less formal gathering on Friday night; use of multiple hospitality suites; the cost of food the hotel will provide; the cost of favors such as our 50th Reunion Directory, a memorabilia DVD, and a video DVD covering the 50th festivities; and snacks in the hospitality suites.  As you know, the registration cost was set at $115 for the primary attendee.  It was thought best not to allow that cost to climb much above $100, so that cost would not be a significant discouragement to anyone.  However, holding the registration cost down meant there were many things that had to be categorized as nice-to-have, but couldn't be folded in for-free.

Several classmates have already stepped up to underwrite a number of items so they wouldn't put a strain on the registration receipts.  First and foremost is the substantial charter bus expense.  A Class of 1960 couple has volunteered to provide the bus services we need for the planned weekend activities.  Another Class of 1960 couple has volunteered to underwrite DJ services for us.  This will be a known-quantity DJ that specializes in 50s amd 60s music.  The sponsoring couple has seen this DJ in action a number of times and are sure we will get a great experience in this regard.  Another Class of 1960 couple is underwriting the materials for, and producing, the name tags.

Sponsorship/Underwriting

There are still plenty of things that didn't make the "for-free" cut, and here are some of them, and the donations it would take to underwrite them:

50th Reunion Tee-Shirts

$1500, plus or minus, would underwrite 150 Tee-shirts that look like the picture above.  Click on thumbnail to enlarge.

Please note that - instead of waiting for someone with deep pockets to step up and underwrite the tee shirts - if you would like to buy one or more on your own, get in touch with Jeanne Croson Midgett.  An order will be placed in mid September, which will supply those who have committed in advance and also provide a limited, first-come-first-served availability on-site at the reunion.  If you want to be absolutely sure of getting a shirt, get in touch with Jeanne.  For Jeanne's contact info, click on "Contact Us" at the top-of-page menu. 

But again, for someone who is willing and able to underwrite a nice memento that could be distributed gratis to all who attend, this Tee-shirt would be an ideal candidate.

Professional, Instant Delivery Still Photos

$3300, plus or minus, would underwrite unlimited "green screen" photos for individuals, couples, groups.  Click on thumbnail.

Flowers for Reception Area

$100, plus or minus, would underwrite flowers for the reception area.  Click on thumbnail above.

Donations Beyond Our Class

Another thing to consider, as we approach the 50-year mark, is that it might be nice to donate something notable to Wakefield, as a class.  So be thinking about that, and so will we, and perhaps we can come up with something appropriate.  We are almost 600 strong, and so small individual contributions could add up to quite a nice gift for Wakefield.  More on that later.

And if you've still got any money left after all the above, go to the Wakefield Education Foundation site, and do something for them too.  As noted on our home page, WEF has been very supportive of our efforts to enhance the 1960 class pages on their site.  And WEF does some very worthwhile things with contributions, as is explained on the WEF site.

Finally, consider the Arlington Outdoor Education Association, an organization that has been supported by many individual 1960 Warriors, as well as Wakefield 1960 as a group.

"CONSIDER SUPPORTING" will take you to info on organizations you should keep in mind.

Donors in the time frame leading up to the 50th Reunion

Donations great and small have been received into the Wakefield Class of 1960 treasury in time frame leading up to the current (50th) Reunion.  Since the large donors generally seem to prefer to remain anonymous, we are listing all donors without any groupings or indication as to amount donated.  This tabulation will be further updated after the reunion.

Back?

Click here to return to Wakefield Class of 1960 HOME page

Click here to return to WAKEFIELD EDUCATION FOUNDATION web site

© 2010 Wakefield Class of 1960 and Wakefield Education Foundation (information@wakefieldalumni.org)