A
major gift for Hope Hall! The school has received $2.7 million from the
Gleason Family Foundation, the largest single gift in the school’s 22-year
history. The gift will allow Executive Director, Sister Diana Dolce, and Hope Hall's Board the latitude to begin marketing the school’s educational program
to help build more schools like Hope Hall, as well as offset operating costs. Sister
Diana said the gift is just one of many contributions the Gleason family has
made over the years.
“The
Gleason Family Foundation has been in the forefront of supporting educational
reform since the 1990’s,” said Sister Diana. “Jim and Jan Gleason first visited
Hope Hall in 1997, and gave us our first large gift ($850,000) in 1998 to help
us purchase the school. Since that time, the Foundation has been very
instrumental in promoting educational reform nationally.”
Sister
initially met with the Gleason family in May. Learning of the school’s financial
struggles the Gleason’s agreed to double every dollar Hope Hall raised through
donations up to $1 million. By this July, the school had raised $333,000
meaning the Gleason Foundation would give the school $666,000.
“When
the Gleasons and the Foundation Trustees saw the large outpouring of support,
Tracey Gleason, daughter of Jim and Jan, and President of the Foundation,
called me and said they didn’t want to send any negative energy our way by
writing a check with 666, so they were rounding up to $700,000,” explained
Sister.
In
addition, the Foundation also agreed to give another $2 million to help offset
the school’s yearly operating budget. “They (the Gleasons) knew that raising
that kind of money, with nothing to fall back on each year, was preventing me
from writing and putting what we do at Hope Hall into a package that could be
marketed and replicated,” said Sister Diana.
Hope
Hall provides a multi-sensory education approach for students who have trouble learning in a traditional classroom environment.