On February 19, Williston held its fifth Annual Founders Day.

Starting in 2016, Williston has held Founders Day, a day dedicated to giving back to the school. The first Founders Day was comprised of workshops and was formatted much like Why Not Speak Day. It was filled with fun and interesting workshops throughout the day in celebration of Williston’s 175th year of being a school.

During Founders Day, Williston takes donations or “gifts” from alumni and parents or grandparents. All of these gifts go to the Williston Northampton Fund, also known as the Annual Fund.

Rather than focusing on how much money is being brought in, the focus is placed on the amount of donors: the amount of people that want to give back to the school.

Maddy Scott ’16, Assistant Director Alumni Engagement & Giving, shared how the gifts can help Williston.

“It pretty much makes up the difference of what you are getting in the school from tuition revenue and what other costs there are to run the school because it’s really expensive to run a school,” she said.

In the first Founders Day, Williston held a goal of reaching 175 gifts in 24 hours. Last year we reached nearly 1,400 gifts and this year Williston has a goal of 1,500 gifts in 24 hours.

Maddy is confident that Williston will “shatter that goal” again this year.

During the week of Founders Day, which ends Friday, Feb. 21, senior gift will also be going on. This was started last year so that the seniors also feel connected to the same kind of giving process that the alums are doing–as they will soon be alums.

New this year however, there is a new technological platform called “Boost My School.” The goal is to make it easier to track the gifts being brought in. you are also able to see the gifts by class, so some friendly competition may be stirred up among the different classes for who will donate the most! Boost My School will also show the actual dollar amount that is raised as well.

Maddy shared why Founders Day is important to her and what it really means to the Williston community.

“Founders Day is really just about a day of coming together and kind of showing the Williston community and all the good positive vibes of campus and just really getting excited about what Williston does,” she said. “Alumni really show their gratitude and how grateful they are for school and what they’re thankful for and their pride in Williston. That’s definitely a big thing.”