Fun Run 2022 Wrap-Up -THANK YOU!

Good Afternoon All!

Thank you to a long list of people for coming together to make this fourth Fun Run at GHCDS another success!  

We again broke our top fundraising record and shattered our goal, raising nearly $66K for improvement of Good Hope Country Day School classrooms.  Along with 5% back for respective classroom use this year, this will go toward new flooring, ceiling fans and lighting.  

2022 Key Stats:

– $65,943 total school profit ($61,283 in 2021)

– $226 average raised per student ($186 in 2021)

– 77% of students pledged

– 96% of students registered

Thanks first to my family for championing the Fun Run again this year.  I so appreciate my husband Greg for picking up the slack while I focused on this fundraiser!  I appreciate my sons, students Matthew (grade 4) and Ian (grade 2), for being consistent cheerleaders for this event.

Secondly, thank you to my core committee and those who volunteered to take on leadership roles: 

– Sandy & Scott Hardesty were again our Race Day Leaders, expertly planning every detail of Fun Run days.  They kindly donated rental of the inflatable obstacle course for race day two, among many other tasks to set-up and facilitate the runs.  

– Michele Mirocha spearheaded prizes again this year, partnering with me for nightly “prize pulls” to organize and distribute thousands of fitness rewards to our students.  The remaining prizes were donated to Lion Haven.  

– Perry Sheraw, Quiana Adams & Anna Holley shared the communications role this year, taking the lead on teacher/parent e-mails, social media posts, and marquee sign messages.  

– Julie Sommer volunteered to once again emcee our pep rallies and race days, getting the students energized and keeping them motivated!  

– Alex Whitworth handled decorations for pep rallies coordinated with this year’s theme, Grand Land Adventure.

– Dr. Neenay Melko kindly helped organize hundreds of race day t-shirts for classroom distribution.  

We so appreciate Lindsay Kammerzelt (Lindsay Kammerzelt Photography) donating her time and talent to capture outstanding images of our students during their Fun Runs.  Those images are available on the GHCDS Parent Association Facebook page.  

Thank you to our Race Day t-shirt sponsors who proactively came forward in support of this event:

Sleeve Sponsors:
– Bohlke International Aviation 

– J. Benton Construction
 

Premium Sponsors:

– ABC Janitors

– Atlantic Industries

– Coldwell Banker

– Computer Solutions

– Island Therapy Solutions

– JS Therapies

– Lee Rohn, Attorneys at Law

– Marshall & Sterling Insurance

– ProHealth Urgent Care

– Seaglass Properties 

– The Jarrin Family

– The Market STX

– Undercover Books & Gifts

Traditional Sponsors:

– Cane Bay Partners

– Crime Stoppers USVI

– Geographic Consulting

– Island Cleaners

– Plaza East

– Seaside Market & Deli

– The Cookie Momster 

In addition to generously sponsoring our t-shirts, The Market STX donated canvas bags for prize deliveries to classrooms.  They also provided water to keep our students, teachers, and volunteers hydrated on race days.

Special thanks to Alex Whitworth (The Cookie Momster Kitchen) for baking delicious treats for the teachers’ meeting!  Alex along with her daughters, Ava and Emma, along with Deborah Marlow kindly came in on a day off school to set-up the pep rallies.  

Thank you to our day-of set up crew and co-hosts for the pep rallies:

Alex Whitworth

Leah Chewning

Julie Sommer

Race days would not have happened without an amazing community of volunteers: 

Thank you to our Business Leaderboard of contributors during the Booster fundraising campaign (ordered by top contribution):

1 – Cane Bay Partners

2 – ALAW

3 – AMS CPAs

4 – Shupe’s

5 – Tritonvi Services LLC

6 – North Shore Partners Inc.

7 – Design Lab PC

8 – Jet Centre Curaçao

9 – Schmidt Community Fund

10 – Land Orthodontics VI, LLC

11 – Payroll 4 the VI

12 – Right Way Drilling and scanning

13 – Good Day St. Croix

14 – Johnny Jeweler

15 – People Solutions

16 – Divine Cake Guru

17 – Beatriz Totzke

Thank you to our student volunteers who met me every morning of the program to distribute prizes to classrooms: 

Last, but certainly not least, a huge thanks to the teachers, faculty and administration of GHCDS for their fantastic support of this year’s Fun Run.  I appreciated outstanding support from Dean Nancy Thatcher, who kindly scheduled the aforementioned student volunteers for prize distributions to classrooms and personally recollected the canvas bags daily. I appreciate Sue Gibbons who helped get us started over the summer and stayed in consistent contact on the finance side.  Thank you to Kiomie Pedrini and Linda Stamper-Keularts for assistance with communications, from the marquee sign to social shares on Instagram.  A tremendous thanks to Dean Elijah Mondesir for again being the key point person on-campus.  His “run of show” schedules were imperative for event days at school.  Thanks to Alma Nieves for putting together key numbers that help set up and maintain accuracy of our Booster dashboard.  

This program would not have been successful without the enthusiasm of our teachers, who kindly took the extra time and energy to learn and implement this program with their students.  The Parent Association was pleased to reward five ELC/LS with movie parties for 100% participation in this fundraiser.  In addition, Ms. Jane Coles’ advisory won the MS/US off-campus lunch.  Thanks to Ms. Maranda Wood, who incredibly led her 11th grade advisory to 100% registration on day one.  She also personally raised more than $1,000 in donations for GHCDS.  

Thank you to Headmaster Bugg for continued enthusiastic support of this program.  He even signed on for students to “pie” him at Friday Gathering to celebrate exceeding the school-wide fundraising goal.  We also appreciate Deans Mondesir and Thatcher for being good sports to let the most engaged middle and upper school advisories (Coles, Gamble & Nazos) silly string them on their run day!

Finally, thank you to my fellow actively engaged parents, the generosity of friends and family, and an outpouring of community support.

With gratitude, 

– Ashley Bouzianis

Fun Run 2022 Chair

GHCDS Parent Association