Just as the deadline for donations concluded, La Salle reached its $150,000 Better Together fundraising goal.

Better Together is a fundraising initiative seeking to provide financial aid to La Salle families. It was originally founded over 30 years ago by a group of La Salle staff members, according to Advancement Associate Ms. Jennifer Reeves, though the name “Better Together” was adopted relatively recently.

Each year, students have an individual fundraising goal of $150, a cost which can be fulfilled in two major ways: during the wreath sale in fall where students sell Christmas wreaths, or during the two weeks of the Better Together fundraiser, where students email friends and family, encouraging them to donate to a “giving page” which tracks individual, class, and schoolwide goals.

If a student’s fundraising goal is not met by the end of the academic year, it will be paid as part of tuition, Ms. Reeves said.

Better Together offers other fundraisers as well, such as the coin drive. Each class has a jar, and any coins put into the jar count toward their total, while any bills count against it. The class with the highest net total wins a spot at the front of the lunch line.

Students also had the opportunity to buy and throw pies at staff and fellow students.

This year, the pie contest raised over $500 and the coin drive almost $600.

According to Ms. Reeves, these events did more than raise money.

“Having a community event during lunch time brought everyone together,” she said.

Senior David Sharyan said that what separated this year’s Better Together from prior ones was the schoolwide enthusiasm.

“I truly heard kids talking about the Chick-fil-A prize in the halls, or, you know, seeing how many coins are in the jugs, and it got the school in a little bit of a buzz,” he said.

As part of the Leadership class, Sharyan helped organize this year’s Better Together. Sharyan was the committee leader for incentives, prizes and events while senior Gabrielle Jones led the video committee.

Sharyan and Jones also worked closely with staff from the La Salle Center, including Ms. Reeves, Director of Giving & Alumni Relations Ms. Maura Carpinello, and Marketing and Communications Specialist Ms. Lilly Grey Rudge.

“They are the most hardworking, underappreciated people at La Salle,” Sharyan said. “A lot of the time we don’t see the people on the back end making this whole show run, and that’s the people in the La Salle Center working in their little offices. And so getting to work with Ms. Carpinello, Ms. Reeves, Ms. LG was such a rewarding opportunity, because we also saw what they do on a day-to-day basis.”

To encourage students to reach their goal while also having fun, Leadership worked alongside the La Salle Center to create incentives for reaching donation goals. This year the school gave away individual prizes including five free drinks at the Red and Blue Brew Cafe, a pair of Adidas Sambas shoes, and two $25 Amazon gift cards to eight goal-reaching students.

La Salle also created incentives for entire classes, including a Chick-fil-A lunch for the class with the most donors — which went to the freshmen this year — skipping the lunch line for the coin-drive-winning seniors, and an all-school skip day on Monday, May 18 for the school community as a reward for completing the goal.

Some Leadership students, led by Jones, focused on creating a video.

“They took a lot of time to help research on what this kind of ‘mini-documentary’ would look like, and took the time to reach out to alumni … and put a lot of effort into that and did all the editing and all the essential parts to bring that video together,” Sharyan said. “They did a lot of work on that front, and we’re so happy it turned out so great.”

Ms. Reeves remains open to changes in the future. “Any ideas are welcome,” she said. “We want this to be successful for years to come.”