For this year’s Senior Gift, students will be asked to specify the particular area that they want their money to go toward. Each year the graduating class has the opportunity to leave its legacy at Phillips Academy in the form of the Senior Gift. The gift is a collection of contributions that supports the programs and facilities that have benefited the class during its time at PA. Since this year’s gift will not go toward one main project, as many past gifts have, students will be able to designate the specific areas that they want their money to go toward: financial aid or scholarship funds, commons renovations, the new turf field, faculty support, or any other venue. Seniors can also donate in honor of a faculty member or retired teacher. This year, Seniors can give to the school in memory of George Hattemer ’06. The Senior Gift Committee, comprised of 69 Senior Leaders, facilitates the donation process. Former or current teachers of Seniors can recommend them to the Committee. According to Ms. Glynn, the Committee will meet about half a dozen times this year. Each Senior Leader is assigned five to ten seniors, whom they encourage and motivate to donate. Senior Leader Marty Schnure ’06 described her role as “trying to get as many people as possible to donate as soon as possible.” Aside from plaques and club distinctions another incentive to give is to beat the class of 2005’s contribution statistic, according to Senior Leader Felicity Bloom ’06. She said, “Last year 85% of the Senior class donated and this year we want 100%. Exeter gets 100% every year.” The Committee also acts as a liaison between the Office of Alumni Affairs and the Senior class. It approves proposals for the allocation of the fund-raising each year. Ms. Glynn said the Senior Gift is “just a way for [the seniors] to have a way of giving. We try to focus on participation, not dollars. It’s about having the class contribute as a whole.” If the donor does not specify a beneficiary for his or her gift, the money goes into the Andover Fund, which operates “everything from doorknobs to buildings [on campus],” according to Ms. Glynn. The Board of Trustees employs these unrestricted funds wherever they might be needed. Donations come with incentives as well. Giving is optional and the minimum gift accepted is $5.00, but students are rewarded for larger donations. Seniors who donate $17.76 gain membership in the 1776 club, while students who donate $250 earn the distinction of a “non sibi donor.” All Seniors who donate by the 100 Days Party (a party thrown for the Seniors as part of the countdown to graduation) are automatically entered into a raffle. The class of 2006 and its gifts will be commemorated on a donor plaque in Commons. Past classes have similar legacies in the restoration of campus monuments. The Class of 2003 dedicated its gift to the bell tower. However, the array of Senior Gift dedications over the past few years has varied widely. The class of 2004 made its donation to the school in the form of a scholarship fund in honor of retiring President of the Board of Trustees David M. Underwood ’54, while the class of 2005 made its contribution to the Andover Fund. The Class of 1999 contributed the DVD collection to the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library. It is the act of giving which is most integral to the senior gift. “It is a thank you and a lasting lesson in the Phillips Academy motto, non sibi,” said Ms. Glynn. “We just want them to realize the importance of giving no matter what the gift.”
