The new Student Center is moving forward, thanks to financial contributions in December from the majority of the school community, matched by a donation of 1.5 million dollars from an anonymous donor. The school needed to raise 6 million dollars to go ahead with the project, but surpassed this goal, raising over 6.2 million dollars in funds.

The anonymous donor had proposed a challenge to the community, hoping that 100% of Dana Hall’s students and faculty could make a donation of any dollar amount. The community was given the opportunity to make donations during lunch or online, throughout a week-long period of December 3 to 10, 2014. Overall, the Dana Hall School community reached 76% participation. However, the Class of 2017, along with the Class of 2021, reached 100 percent participation. An excerpt from an email by the anonymous donor to the development office says that the donation level “truly speaks to how much this project means to the girls and to the future of this school.”

Emily Murida ’17, a member of the Star Club, which works with the development office, was one of the many student promoters of the fundraiser. Murida said that “everybody did really well,” so she is “proud of the total percent participation the community had because it’s hard to get an entire school towards a cause.” Ms. Julie Gray, Director of Development, agreed with Emily in that it was “Awesome, fantastic, and a great educational process.”

Along with a donation, the community competed in winning points for their respective blue and white teams, with one point earned when each person participated. Participants were also able to write over one of the blocks of the Common Ground brick wall, and while participation progressed, a puzzle of the new Student Center logo was filled in.

Now that the school has raised enough money to get the project underway, many students, such as Kathryn Elliott ’17, are excited for the new addition to the campus.