Typical school fundraising efforts, like selling wrapping paper and magazine subscriptions, did not seem like the right fit for the Holy Trinity community, not with so many hungry people in the world. And so, the community came together—administrators, faculty, staff, parents and students—to reach out from the land of abundance to the land of need.
Beginning in September, Holy Trinity parents launched the school’s second annual fund campaign with the new addition of “Feed the Need,” a family-led fundraising initiative. The parent body connected with friends, relatives and the Lowcountry business community, raising money for both the Love to Learn, Learn to Love Holy Trinity annual fund, as well as to purchase, prepare and package some 10,000 meals to be sent to the people of Haiti who were affected by a devastating earthquake early this fall.
According to Holy Trinity Board Member and Advancement Chair, Brenton Bozard, “The Feed the Need parent led fundraiser was a wonderful opportunity to serve a need in Haiti, as well as raise funds for Holy Trinity’s annual fund that supports the school’s faith based tuition policy, striving to keep tuition in reach for Beaufort families.”
While the campaign was energetically moving forward in Beaufort SC, Hurricane Matthew raked Haiti with Category 4 winds, claiming 473 lives and leaving a trail of destruction that deprived the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country of food, clean water and shelter.
Now faced with an even greater need, the Holy Trinity parents redoubled their efforts to collect money for the Haitian people. Working together, the students and their families raised $114,993 for the “Feed the Need” campaign and boosted the number of meals from 10,000 to 16,500.
Over 200 Holy Trinity students packed the thousands of meals to be sent to the Caribbean. “It was an honor working hand in hand with the Holy Trinity families to benefit the people of Haiti and Holy Trinity,” says Andrea Cooler, the FTN event director and a parent herself. “It was a humbling experience watching God’s hand work throughout our fundraising efforts. Only through God could we have exceeded our fundraising goals by such margins.”
Holy Trinity Classical Christian School provides 275 students with a distinctly Christian and classical education. Holy Trinity is the result of a long-standing commitment to education by the Parish Church of St. Helena, beginning in 1748 with the founding of the first free school in Beaufort, SC and later in 1801 by the donation of 20 acres of land for the establishment of Beaufort College, resulting in what is now the University of South Carolina Beaufort. The current student body of Holy Trinity is comprised of families from over a dozen Christian churches of various denominations.
