This year’s Senior Parent Gift will be improvements to Williston’s Phillips Stevens Chapel, which is mainly used for weekly upper-school assemblies. The parents of the graduating class of 2014 are working to raise $300,000. To date, just over half of the target total, around $175,000, has been donated.

Of that $175,000, an anonymous parent recently donated $100,000. However, Rachel Goldberg, Williston’s Director of Parent Relations says, “The goal is to have 100% of the Senior Parents donate to this project.”

Each year, the Senior Parent Gift is decided by the Williston administration and depends on what the school would like to improve.

This year, these funds will be used towards major renovations of the Chapel. The first will be the installation of an audio and visual system that will include a large screen that will lower from the ceiling. The second will be the reconstruction of the chapel’s stage, which will create more space for the school’s performance arts concerts. This new stage will also have handicap accessibility.

Goldberg says about these improvements, “This gift will be tremendous for Williston.  Weekly assemblies [will] be enhanced because of the new audio/visual system and large drop down screen.”

The Chapel is currently used for weekly assemblies in which individuals and groups make brief announcements about upcoming events. These presentations often involve a visual component which can be projected onto a large screen from a computer. This space is also used for other events, such as lectures by guest speakers, the Ward Medal Ceremony, and the Cum Laude Induction Ceremony.

The Chapel is also where Williston’s choral and musical groups give their performances. Goldberg says, “The construction of a new stage will add an additional performance space on campus, for the arts.”

Last year, the Class of 2013 parents raised funds which improved the Stubop area, including new furniture, a new television, and new tables and chairs in the snack bar area. In 2012, the parents’ funds went to improvements to the school’s Robert Clapp Memorial Library.