Attendees enjoy “Around the World” ASB Gala.

Photos by Clay Wegrzynowicz ‘18

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Alternative School Break strives to raise $1.1 million

With the “Around The World” Gala as a kickoff, Alternative School Break embarked on a $1.1 million fundraising effort. The funds will help the club to expand its reach on Lafayette’s campus, according to the president of ASB.

“[The gala] ended up being a really nice trifecta of celebrating our history—the club is 21 years old, highlighting our successes this year since it’s been our biggest and best yet hands down and announcing our plans for the future because we are going into a growth faze,” ASB president Abby Williams ’15 said.

Any funds raised as part of ASB’s efforts will also contribute to the college’s capital campaign.

“It’s not just ASB and what they are fundraising for,” Vice President of Development and College Relations Kim Spang said. “Because we’re in a comprehensive capital campaign all gifts coming into the college are counted toward the campaign and our goal.”

The fundraising is to support the club’s wish to increase what they can offer to the campus community.

“We really want to be able to have summer trip so that we can get access to more students to be able to experience ASB, because just a winter, spring and fall trips are still limiting,” ASB’s fundraising chair Emily Lindahl ’17 said. “We also want be able to develop a larger scholarship fund.”

A million dollar campaign may seem out of reach for a college club, but members are confident in their ability to reach their goal.

“We’re a very highly motivated Exec board and [group of] team leader[s],” ASB treasurer Robert Sanchez ’16 said. “Not only do we begin the process of long-term goals right now, but that’s the groundwork for others to build on in the future. So trendsetting a little bit.”

ASB plans to have the $1.1 million will be broken down between two endowments. An ASB scholarship endowment would receive $100,000 and a general program support endowment would acquire the remaining million.

The club has had the help of the development office in finding donors to support their efforts.

“We would be remiss to not utilize the college’s connections,” Sanchez said. “We’ve gone to the annual fund and they keep a list of alumni who were in certain groups at the college, so we requested that list and information. They were able to provide us with those names… [we can] use that as a means to contact the people ourselves.”

The gala not only announced the club’s fundraising goal, it allowed the club to broadcast their objective.

“Originally when we decided on [the gala] it was only going to be to be a fundraiser and then as it developed we decided this should really be a marketing event for us,” Lindahl said. “[We wanted to] reach out to students who wouldn’t know about ASB otherwise.”

The club hopes that the gala and campaign will bring awareness and perspective members to the organization.

“From a product perspective, the club has done a good job of creating a memorable trip,” Williams said. “The club has had its core product and done it well. No one knows about it though, for it being 21 years old.”

The gala featured auctions and raffles that functioned as the very first funds raised for the goal. Totals are still being calculated, but Williams projects that they raised around $3,000.

The club hopes that this year’s gala will be the first in what will hopefully be an annual event.

“I really enjoyed myself,” said David Kafafian ’13, who helped to auction off items. “I hope they can pull it off again in the future.”

For members of ASB, the gala succeeded in what it set out to do.

“It was about telling students how much ASB does,” Lindahl said. “I think that it’s one the clubs that in the past hasn’t been thought of throughout the campus. This gala gave ASB as much buzz as it’s ever had at Lafayette.”