The Sands Family Foundation has issued a $1 million challenge to close the Harley School’s $12 million “Lives of Great Purpose” fundraising campaign.
The school and members of the Sands family – two cousins representing the second generation to attend the school, and parents of current students – announced the challenge grant Monday. The foundation last year promised $3 million to the campaign that was kicked off in 2017, the school’s centenary year.
So far the school has raised more than $10 million.
The Sands donations and the $1 million the school expects to raise through the challenge grant will be dedicated to an endowment to support faculty.
“Everything you see on this campus is a result of philanthropy,” said Head of School Larry Frye, noting that independent schools do not receive government or church funding.
Other monies have helped in construction of three new facilities at the school – The Peckham Wellness Center, the Moore/Brown Center for Creative Media, and the Winslow Natural Playground & Outdoor Learning Center, all of which opened during the last school year.
Courtney Winslow, daughter of Constellation Brands Executive Vice Chairman Richard Sands, said the school has reached 84 percent of its fundraising goal, and once another $1 million is raised, the Sand Foundation will match that to complete the campaign by the school year’s end.
Her cousin, Abby Stern Bennett, daughter of the late Laurie Sands (Richard Sands’ and Robert Sands’ sister,) said it was fitting that the family’s gifts will support faculty at the school, where she found a second family as a student. “My teachers nurtured me, they challenge me, they celebrated me,” she said.
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