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Volunteer Appreciation Brunch
With Thanks For Your Gifts Of Thyme
fOn April 13th, Rothrock Performing Arts Center was abuzz with celebration. It was the annual Volunteer Appreciation Brunch, a beautiful commemoration of the Priory volunteer community’s goodness. To show the community’s gratitude and with quintessential Priory hospitality, alumni mothers—led by Meg Lansing, Linda Barnes, Eileen DiGiorgio, Ann Marie Draeger, Tami O’Neill, Liz Pavlov and Patti Turnquist—created centerpieces, set tables, greeted guests, served bev- erages and then welcomed senior parents to life after Priory with the presentation to each of an alumni parent Priory Panther key ring.
Head of School Tim Molak recognized Gala Chair extraordinaire Carolyn Putney for her phenomenal leadership of this year’s Emerald Ball which generat- ed over $700,000—a new record!—and strengthened our community in support of every single student at the school. Wearing her customary Emerald Ball tiara, Carolyn thanked her committee Chairs for their generous time and talent.
Tim then initiated a custom known as The Last Volunteer Standing. He asked all those who had volunteered for at least one year to please stand and be rec- ognized. At first, nearly everyone in the room was standing. Next, he called out higher and higher numbers of years, and more and more volunteers sat down, until at last there was only Barbara Calbert, the Last Volunteer Standing with 14 years of dedicated service to the Priory community.
After that, Tim acknowledged Pamela and Scott Weiss, outgoing PPA Chairs, for their inclusive leadership of the parent community over the last two years. Tim highlighted the contributions of their tenure including expanded volunteer staffing of the Franklin Garden, reinforcement of the Parent Resource Network and the initiation of a pre-Christmas Concert Party which will become an annual tradition.
Pamela and Scott expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to be of ser- vice to the Priory community. They acknowledged the contributions of the PPA Event and Activity Chairs, and presented them with a beautiful burlap covered thyme plant accompanied by a handwritten card that read, “Thank you for your gift of Thyme.”
Newly installed 16-18 PPA Co-Presidents Kathy Fitzgerald and Kari Rust added their praise for Pamela and Scott’s two-year term of good works and expressed their enthusiasm for undertaking leadership of the parent volunteer community.
In the end, after special acknowledgment of those volunteers who helped raise money for Priory’s Annual Fund, there was the last hurrah, dispatched via video. It was the entire student body chanting, “Thank you Priory volunteers! Thank you, very much!”
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APPRECIATION