News Archive
News From 2009
November 2009
Harvest Auction Gala Raises Over $54,000 for Foundation
The Glastonbury Education Foundation’s major annual fundraiser raised over $54,000 from sponsorships, ticket sales, and auction item sales. About 330 people attended the event held at Glastonbury Hills Country Club. HABCO Inc. was the event’s major sponsor for the seond year in a row. The event received wide support from Glastonbury’s business and community members including Bank of America, Barnes Group, Inc., Connecticut Investors Group, Family Choice Mortgage, Flanagan Industries, Great Pond Neighbors, Jaconetta, Burnham & Wimer, The Karp and Ostrowski Families, The Lussier Family, The Marchetti Family, The Megaw Family, Murtha Cullina LLP, Rockville Bank, Webster Bank, and Margaret Wilcox. Monies raised will support the grants and activities of the Foundation in 2010.
June 2009
Bill Landers Building Bridges Memorial 5k Run/Walk
Over 300 people participated in the inaugural Bill Landers Building Bridges Memorial 5k Run/Walk held on June 7, 2009, with major sponsorship by CrossFit Persevere of Glastonbury. The event served to fund the the newly established Bill Landers Memorial Scholarship of the Glastonbury Education Foundation, as well as other grants and activities of the Foundation. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a GHS graduate who will attend one of the CT State University System Schools. Bill Landers passed away in the fall of 2008. He was a member of the board of directors of the Glastonbury Education Foundation. Our numerous sponsors and participants helped to make the event a huge success, and ensure the continuation of the Bill Landers Memorial Scholarship.
Click here to see sponsors and photos from this event.
March 2009
New Board of Directors Elected
The Glastonbury Education Foundation elected four new members to the Board of Directors.
Click here to see who they are.
News From 2008
November 2008
Harvest Auction Gala Raises $82,000 for Foundation
The Glastonbury Education Foundation’s major annual fundraiser raised over $82,000 from sponsorships, ticket sales, and auction item sales. The event held at Glastonbury Hills Country Club was attended by 330 people who enjoyed dinner, desserts donated by The Bakery Connection and entertainment by Jeff Weiselberg while perusing over 100 auction items donated by local businesses and individuals. Support from Glastonbury’s business and community members was tremendous and very appreciated.
Photos courtesy of EB Taylor Photography – Glastonbury
Foundation Gifts $96,000 for Greenhouse at Gideon Welles School
The Glastonbury Education Foundation committed to gifting $96,000 for the construction of a greenhouse at Gideon Welles School. The greenhouse will give students a living laboratory in which to learn and explore hands on the life sciences curriculum taught in sixth grade. It will be located on the southwest side of the school adjacent to the Butterfly Garden. It’s 800 sq. ft. size will allow for entire classes to meet, learn, and experiment. The greenhouse will also provide Glastonbury Partners in Planting with a larger space to start and grow the plants they locate throughout Glastonbury.
December 2007
Glastonbury High School is Searching for Alumni
The Glastonbury Board of Education in partnership with the Glastonbury Education Foundation is in the process of compiling information for an alumni directory of Glastonbury High School graduates covering the past fifty years. If you are a graduate of Glastonbury High School, you will be receiving a letter, and possibly a phone call, requesting an update of your biographical information.
“Having current information about our graduates allows us to include all alumni in community events and activities”, stated Dr. Alan Bookman, Glastonbury Superintendent of Schools. “Compiling this information has been something I wanted to do for years when I was the principal at Glastonbury High School. I think it will be enjoyed by generations of graduates.”
The directory is designed to be the definitive reference of Glastonbury High School and our alumni, and will make it easy to reconnect with former friends and classmates. Complete listings will include academic, professional and personal information, and alumni will also be cross listed by class year and city and state of residence. GHS graduates will be given the opportunity to purchase a directory during the information gathering process.
November 2007
Glastonbury Education Foundation Honored
The Glastonbury Education Foundation has received the Celebration of Excellence: Outstanding CT Foundation 2007 award from the Connecticut Consortium of Education Foundation in recognition of the Foundation’s success in raising $160,000 for a state-of-the-art television production studio at Glastonbury High School. Glastonbury Education Foundation Chairman, Ira Yellen, accepted the award. Glastonbury Schools art director, Dan Roach, Glastonbury High School students, Tyler Vallario and Rachel Fite talked about the effect the studio has has at the high school.
Glastonbury Education Foundation and Board of Education Coordinate Computer Donation
On Friday, November 2, 2007 representatives from the Glastonbury Board of Education, the Glastonbury Education Foundation and Glastonbury-based business Open Solutions Inc. met with Neil Griffin of the Glastonbury Housing Authority (GHA) at the GHA Main Office. Open Solutions Inc. donated 20 computers and monitors to be distributed through a lottery-based selection to families without computers from the Welles Village Community. The Glastonbury Education Foundation paid for the computers to be refurbished, and the Glastonbury Board of Education worked with the town’s housing authority to distribute the computers.
May 2007
Dedication and Ribbon Cutting of Glastonbury Education Foundation Television Production Center at Glastonbury High School
Over a 2-year period, the Glastonbury Education Foundation raised over $145,000 from 500 businesses, Foundations, and individuals to equip a state-of-the-art digital television production center in the high school. The project grew from a need and a dream of educators, parents, students, and community members. Curriculum designed for high school students in the fields of television broadcasting, videography, and lighting and sound for stage and television will be implemented this fall, and the center will also be used to improve communications both within the high school and throughout the Glastonbury community.
November 2006
Annual Founders Event and Auction
The annual fundraiser held on Tuesday, November 29th at the Hilton Garden Inn raised over $130,000. $90,000 will go toward Phase 2 to finish equipping the TV studio at Glastonbury High School. Phase 1 of the project is complete and construction on the studio has begun. $70,000 has been allocated to purchase enough equipment for a club and for use by January 2007. The studio will be ready for community use and high school classes by next fall.
Dick Katz, auctioneer for the 2006 fundraiser event
November 2005
Annual Founders Event and Auction
The second annual founders’ reception sponsored by the Glastonbury Education Foundation in association with the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce was a great success, raising more then $90,000 to build a state-of-the-art digital television, radio, video and sound studio for the high school. This year, the money raised was combined with auction, sponsor, donation and raffle proceeds. The Foundation had a 37% increase from last year’s fundraising efforts.
October 2005
Board Approves 7 to 1 TV Studio for High School
The Glastonbury Education Foundation hopes to raise $200,000 to fund a state-of-the art studio located in a distance-learning lab in the high school. Glastonbury High School is one of the only schools of its size without a television studio. The Foundation will begin fundraising for the project at the November 29 event at the Hilton Garden Inn. Board of Education Chairman, Richard Brown said, “This is a really exciting initiative.” “[This] will allow communication between the school and the community.” Once the needed funds are collected the station could be up and running by the 2007-2008 school year.
September 2005
Opinion Survey Mailed to All Glastonbury Households
More than 2,000 residents responded to the survey, which was mailed to all Glastonbury households in June, giving it a statistically high 16% response rate. Ira Yellen, Chairman of the GEF said, “This overwhelming response gave us in-depth knowledge of what is important to the people of Glastonbury. Now our town government and organizations can work together to use the information to better meet the needs of our citizens.”
April 2005
Glastonbury Education Foundation at the Glastonbury Hartwell Soccer Club’s 12th Annual Spring Warm-Up Tournament
March 2005
Glastonbury Education Foundation Awards Grants Totaling $50,800
Board of Directors Votes Unanimously to Support Five Funding Requests
November 2004
Fundraiser Event Tops $50,000 Goal
The founders’s reception sponsored by the Glastonbury Education Foundation in association with the Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce was a whopping success, raising more than $58,000 to expand educational opportunities for the town’s children and community.
Harry Branning, treasurer of the Glastonbury Education Foundation, gives his live auction donation a rousing sales pitch as Dick Katz, Foundation board member and the evening’s auctioneer waits to start the bidding. Branning’s donation, a weekend in Washington, D.C. with dinners, a Kennedy Center performance and UCONN-Georgetown basketball tickets went for $2,000, the highest bid of the night.
Attendees of the Glastonbury Education Foundation’s sold-out founders’ event anticipate the next bid during a live auction which raised more than $11,000 to boost the fundraiser to more than $58,000, well above its initial goal.
