Claire Donovan, Junior Day Student from Brewster, New York
Every year, the junior class puts together the Dorcas Fair to raise money for different charities. I am one of this year’s three Dorcas heads with Nola Iwasaki and Isabelle Morrissey. We had our annual fair on January 11th, and the secret theme was “The Wizard of Oz.” We raised $14,181.71!! (The extra 71 cents is very important!) The charities we donated to include the Shriners Hospitals for Children, The Alzheimer’s Association, Doctors without Borders, The Petit Family Fund, The Meghan Beebe Fund, UNICEF, and Girls Inc.
The junior class has been working hard since last year when we had our first meeting in the Common Room to discuss the themes and charities, and it has been a fast, crazy ride ever since then! Our class met once or twice a month starting in September to work on posters, crafts, silent auction items, vendors, and all other activities that were available at the fair. I wasn’t really sure what to expect going into junior year as to how much work the fair would be. At our very first meeting at the end of sophomore year, I was so nervous that I broke my pencil in half midsentence! There was so much to do! People to call! Baskets to make! Shirts to sell! I had absolutely no clue how the past junior class managed to do it; however, I also didn’t realize how much easier all of this would be with the help of our class. Every single girl in our class wanted to make the fair a success. There were times when I was completely overwhelmed, doing my math homework while simultaneously calling bakeries asking for cookie donations, but there were other times when I felt nothing more than complete joy and pride to be a part of such an amazing group of girls!
On the day of the fair right before the seniors came in, I just remember being blown away, thinking of where we started with our first meeting in the Common Room to being here: popcorn popped, posters hung, bouncy house blown up, and everyone at their booths in their costumes excited to get started and see all of our hard work finally come together. It was amazing to see all of the families, faculty, and other Westover students enjoying such an entertaining fair that has a tremendous impact on all of those charities.
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