Moments That Made A Difference
Every year, the Westminster community’s strong philanthropic culture serves as the catalyst for countless student programs and experiences. In the 2020-21 school year, our community’s support played an even more crucial role in ensuring the Westminster experience.
Gifts to The Westminster Fund enabled the School to invest in technology for hybrid learning, furniture to facilitate social distancing, gallons of hand sanitizer, and thousands of weekly COVID tests to monitor viral spread. With precautions and new technologies in place, our students, faculty, and staff were able to return to campus, reconnect, and share countless moments that mattered—from art class to innovation lab time to taking the field with teammates—that were made possible because of your support.
The Wildcat community stepped up and gave more generously than ever before, carrying The Westminster Fund to a record high. Thanks to our donors, Westminster was able to rise to the many challenges of a school year like no other and continue to lead, one remarkable moment at a time.
Bringing our Community Back to Campus
Moments of Ingenuity
During the 2020-21 school year, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyday happenings became extraordinary feats of logistics and determination. Across every division, students, faculty, and staff found ways to adapt their usual coursework and activities to the new reality. It wasn’t if we could make something happen; it was how.
The performing arts were a prime example of this ingenuity at work on a daily basis. Classes and rehearsals for all ages moved outdoors, and when it came time for performances, the department pivoted to produce high-tech, multimedia affairs that could be shared through recordings and livestreams. WCAT, StudioW, and other student and alumni videographers were critical partners in this effort.
For the 2020 performance of Handel’s Messiah, reimagined for a pandemic audience, the School’s new parking garage served as a recording studio, and the revamped stands in Alfred E. Thompson Stadium became chorus risers. Orchestra, chorus, and soloists each recorded in different spaces at different times, but the end result was impressively unified, as if all the musicians had been in the same room at once.
It wasn’t the traditional formal concert in McCain Chapel, but the School made it a priority to create this opportunity, even in a year when music-making was suddenly a high-risk activity. Rather than cancel Messiah and other beloved arts events, because of your support, we were able to ask: How can we make this happen?
Moments of Community
Even though the extended Westminster family was unable to gather on campus, alumni and friends came together virtually throughout the year to remember, celebrate, and support.
Reunions went fully online, with a slate of events spanning a period of weeks rather than days. Current and former faculty helped reunion alumni “ReZoom” their studies through a series of online seminars; classmates from Seattle to Boston and everywhere in between logged on for virtual trivia nights; and Reunion Weekend class parties hosted on Zoom stretched into the wee hours of the morning across multiple time zones as Wildcats reconnected.
WCAT, our award-winning student-run broadcast program, stepped up its coverage and streaming of home and away athletics events, music and theater performances, awards ceremonies, and more to help parents, alums, and other supporters connect and keep in touch.
Moments of Celebration
Despite challenging circumstances, Wildcats had much to celebrate in 2020-21 thanks to the generosity of our community. Hawkins Hall and a newly renovated Campbell Hall opened at the start of the school year, in August 2020, bookended by the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Barge Commons in June 2021. Not only did the support of our community lead to the opening of these new spaces across campus, it ensured that we could safely bring School traditions and celebrations into those spaces in an otherwise uncertain time.
Commencement on Pressly Plaza was as close to normal as could be, thanks to favorable public health conditions and strong vaccination rates in the Upper School. Those same circumstances enabled the Class of 2021 to celebrate senior prom—an especially memorable moment—on the new Community Plaza on graduation night.
Paying it forward
Each of these moments, and countless others, held lessons about resilience, perseverance, and the different ways in which we connect with our community and one another in good times and challenging times. The generosity that facilitated these moments made a critical difference on Westminster’s campus every single day.
And the impact of that generosity didn’t stop at our gates. As our community reimagined its operations for a pandemic world, we committed to sharing our findings with fellow schools, public health organizations, and researchers.
It is often said that one does not give to, but through Westminster. This was certainly true over the past year. Your support of Westminster has a reach far beyond our campus—and in this pandemic time, our School can make an ever bigger impact.
MOMENTS THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE
2020-21 REPORT ON PHILANTHROPY
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