Whether it’s with a gala, a concert, or a school dress down day, parents, students, and faculties at Catholic schools around the diocese work together to raise funds to ensure the future of Catholic education on Long Island.
Catholic elementary schools around the diocese have all benefited from the financial help of the Tomorrow’s Hope Foundation, the diocesan education foundation created by Bishop William Murphy in 2005. At the same time, individual schools still depend on their own school communities to raise money to provide their students with the best education possible.
Fundraisers are a huge part of life at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Regional School in Bellmore, where student dress down days, vendor and craft fairs, raffles, auctions, and fashion shows all bring in money for the school. “We have a development committee that brainstorms ideas for fundraising,” explained principal Leeann Graziose. “Two recently created fundraisers (from the development committee) were the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton gala and the Sweetheart Dance. The gala honors a nominated person or people from the past or present who have had a wonderful influence on St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School. The Sweetheart Dance was a father/daughter dance. It was beautiful!”

This year the school is also having a Murder Mystery Dinner, entitled “Kill the Boss,” Graziose noted. Graziose does her part to raise money for the school, running in the Long Island marathon to raise money for things like cafeteria chairs, auditorium chairs, and new technology for the school. Besides the development committee, the parents at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton also participate in SPIRIT, or Seton Parents in Regionally Involved Teams, serving on different fundraising committees. “The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parents are a great group of working people,” said Graziose. “Everyone works together as a team to make it work. As a regional school, we truly have to work that much harder, and all of the money raised needs to go directly into the budget so that the school can run. The parents know and understand that. They believe in Catholic education and will do anything to ensure it’s here for their children.”
At Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Lindenhurst, principal Cammy Lubrano noted that “one of our best fundraisers is The American Girl Fashion Show. This will be our fourth year doing it and we always have a great turnout. We have our students model the clothes, holding in their arms the American Girl doll for whom they are dressed. Mothers, daughters, aunts, friends, and teachers” always have a great time participating and putting the show together.
The Parents’ Club at St. Thomas the Apostle School in West Hempstead “embraces numerous fundraisers each year,” said principal Christina Teisch. “They include candy sales, gift wrap sales, the Christmas craft fair, a father/daughter dance and a mother/son dance. The funds have been used to support much of our technological department.”
This past school year, that included “new PCs for all classrooms and five Smartboards for classrooms,” noted Teisch. “We have been able to advance this department of our school in an ongoing fashion thanks to the support of our families.”
Trinity Regional School in East Northport hosted a gala event at the John W. Engeman Theater in Northport over the summer as a fundraiser for the school. The musical Man of La Mancha was performed at the theater, which is named after an alumnus of St. Anthony of Padua School, Chief Warrant Officer John W. Engeman, who was killed in Iraq in May of 2006. Trinity Regional School is located in the former St. Anthony of Padua School building. Proceeds from the ticket and raffle sales went to the school’s Home School Association. In addition, the school collected donations toward the start of the John W. Engeman Fund, an educational fund for the students at Trinity.
Bill Maier, a classmate of Engeman’s at St. Anthony of Padua, a father of students at Trinity Regional, and organizer of the fundraiser, noted, “It was a chance to expand our fundraising efforts beyond the parents to include people who may be members of the six parishes (served by the school) or people who may have had kids (in the school) who have graduated. It was a chance to reach out to people who may be advocates of Catholic schools or to reach out to some of the alumni.”
The idea for the performance as a fundraiser was to give people “a chance to see a play and have a nice night out, as well as raise funds,” he said. The John W. Engeman Fund itself “is specifically geared for educational needs of the kids. There are things we’d like to buy for the kids like a Smartboard or equipment for the lab or books for the library. We have a small committee we’ve set up to guide this fund. We’ll look at it year to year to see what the school needs.”
The fund is not only a memorial to Engeman but a tribute to “his family,” said Maier, “and his family’s belief in Catholic education.”