The Article below was published in Vol. 136, Issue 6 of the Lake Forest College Stentor on March 12, 2021.
Evie Detrich ’23
Staff Writer
On-campus activities may have been eliminated this Forester Day, but there was certainly no shortage of school spirit during the virtual 24-hour celebration and fundraising extravaganza on Thursday, March 4. In fact, the College offered more than 12 hours of online programming to recreate the community environment typically found on campus, ranging from an athletics showcase to faculty panels to interactive breakout sessions and networking opportunities for students and alumni.
This zeal for school spirit and complete readiness to adapt seems to have paid off, and the College successfully fundraised an impressive $477,231 to support a variety of academic projects, athletics, student affairs programs, and campus spaces. In fact, the Brown Hall Building Match and Brown Hall Bonus Challenge contributed greatly to the large-scale in-progress renovation of Young Hall. Other initiatives, like the Halas Hall Challenge, also served to garner resources for renovations, specifically for the Halas Hall Locker Rooms.
Additionally, the psychology department received the most targeted donors, with 115 donors contributing $9,787. Leading donations to the Career Advancement Center, 10 donors gave $675 for internships, and under the Signature Funds category, 137 donors gave a total of $22,602 to the Spike Initiative. Finally, under Student Affairs, Study Abroad Programs topped the leaderboard for the most donors, with 23 donors giving $2,052.
Furthermore, Forester Day funds are also being used to strengthen the campus’s COVID-19 response. Lake Forest College trustees organized the COVID-19 Relief Initiative, where they matched donations $1-for-$1. The generous funds garnered from donors through this initiative will serve to maintain a safe, in-person campus environment, a testament to the value trustees, alumni, staff, and students place on being able to live and work on campus.
Donations aside, the Lake Forest College community was united under a common cause this past Thursday, creating a sense of unity that is quite literally, priceless. School spirit was undoubtedly strengthened by the community atmosphere fostered online between Foresters past and present who share a commitment to the same institution. In describing the event, organizers wrote, “[a]t a time like no other, we will come together on March 4, 2021, to support the people, programs, and causes that you care about, so we can move the College forward to a brighter future.”
