Volume VII | March 2020
LAWRENCE ACADEMY ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
A MESSAGE FROM CHRIS DAVEY

 Dear Members of the Alumni Community,

We hope that you and your families are safe and healthy and that wherever you are in the world, you feel embraced by the LA community. While it has been an unusual, uncertain, and ever-evolving last few weeks, we are proud of how the school has responded to the global COVID-19 crisis and look forward to returning to some degree of normalcy with our current students starting April 6 when we launch online classroom learning for an as yet undetermined amount of time.


With the health and well-being of our students, faculty, staff and alumni as our primary concern, we have also had to lead in extraordinary ways over the last three weeks to develop a remote learning experience for our current students. As part of this effort, we have been actively working as a community to adapt our classrooms and programs into a virtual curriculum that will retain as many of the unique characteristics of the overall LA experience as possible. As you can imagine, the resiliency, inter-connectedness, and support of our extended community will factor significantly in how successfully we navigate through these challenging days.
 
Reunion and Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony:
In addition to the work that is underway to enable us to resume coursework with our students, we realize that some of the annual traditions that we so deeply cherish are no longer possible to deliver in the ways that we ideally would have wished. So, just as we had to make the painful decision a few weeks ago to cancel Winterim for our students and faculty, we have decided to make a similar decision to postpone Reunion Weekend and the Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony this spring. We are currently working with the Alumni Council to explore various options for both events including moving them to the fall and holding them over Columbus Day weekend. As we further refine our plans, we will keep you apprised of the dates and logistics so that reunion classes and Hall of Fame recipients can plan accordingly. By making this decision now, we are able to give those alumni who were planning to return to campus enough advance notice to either cancel previous travel arrangements or avoid making them altogether. While we are holding out the possibility that we will be able to welcome our students back to campus at some point this spring, we feel strongly that postponing our Reunion Weekend and Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will alleviate any unnecessary uncertainty for alumni and will give us the opportunity to design what hopefully will be an even better reunion and celebration in the fall.
 
Finally, we will continue to keep you updated on other newsworthy information through this monthly newsletter. We also invite you to stay connected with us and other alumni by joining LA Connect , a networking platform dedicated solely to LA alumni that may be a valuable resource for you or your fellow alumni in these uncertain times. 

Thank you for your continued support and for all you do to strengthen the LA community.
 
Warmest of wishes,

Chris Davey P '10, P '16
Assistant Head of School for Institutional Strategy
and Advancement
A MESSAGE FROM CATIE McMENAMIN ’97 & THE ALUMNI COUNCIL
The Alumni Council is excited to welcome Chris Davey and Jo-Ann Lovejoy to LA! They are already making a positive difference to the alumni community with their leadership and energy.

As members of the Alumni Council, we look forward to becoming a much more visible group within the LA community over the coming weeks and months. In support of that goal, we will be transitioning to a new president within the next month, so please stay tuned for that announcement.
 
While we begin preparations for some great new initiatives, we are asking for your help as well. Below is a list of five things that you can do now that will keep us all more connected and informed about our community:

  1. Register on LA Connect: LA Connect is a private, professional networking platform that provides LA alumni with the opportunity to connect with other classmates and fellow alumni in a secure environment. It also provides a mechanism for finding and posting jobs, and identifying potential mentors. Finally, it creates an easy mechanism for offering or requesting help in your industry, field of study, or geographic location. Please join since one of our greatest assets as Lawrence Academy alumni is our community and this platform is a way to support the broader community, particularly in these uncertain times.
  2. We want to celebrate you! Submit a class note for the upcoming Academy Journal and tell us what you are up to.
  3. In addition to your personal update, we’d like to know more about the creative ways LA alumni are coping with the COVID-19 crisis. Tell us what you are doing via email, and we will publish the most unique story in the next Elm Tree Gazette.
  4. Please submit your vote for the Faculty Appreciation Award.
  5. Reunion classes: Class of 2015, 2010, 2005, 2000, 1995, 1990, 1985, 1980, 1975, 1970, 1965 and 1960, please send class notes and photos for inclusion in the next Academy Journal. There will be a special reunion recognition award for the class who submits the greatest number of class notes!

We look forward to hearing from you or seeing you at a social distancing event soon!

If you have questions or would like to be in touch with me directly, I can be reached at cmcmenamin@gmail.com .

Thanks so much. Go LA!!

Sincerely,

Catie Floyd McMenamin '97
Alumni Council Past President
INTRODUCING THE LA CONNECT BUSINESS DIRECTORY
The last several weeks have brought unprecedented and unexpected changes to our daily lives. The coming weeks will likely bring more challenges, and we are all looking for ways to continue moving forward while providing support to our community.

We are pleased to offer you access to the LA Connect Business Directory . The Directory gives you an exclusive space within our engaged network to promote your businesses and services and allows you to:

  • Post your business using an easy, prompted form.
  • Offer special benefits to other LA alumni.
  • Search by free text, category, or location for other businesses and services that you may be able to support.

To access the Business Directory, you must first register with LA Connect . Once you have joined the group, click on the ‘Business Directory’ link in the navigation menu. In addition to the Business Directory, LA Connect features job, networking, mentorship, and internship opportunities within the community.

To learn more about the LA Connect Business Directory, please watch this video now . We welcome you to take this opportunity to promote yourselves and your businesses, and in turn, to support other members of the LA community who may need it now more than ever.
DAYS OF GIVING RECAP (MARCH 11-13)
As you may know, we started the Days of Giving campaign on the same week that the coronavirus began aggressively spreading throughout the United States and the global financial markets were suffering massive daily declines. Because of what was happening around us, we made the decision to pause any active promotion related to our Days of Giving on the first day of the campaign.
 
Despite the lack of promotion, 119 of our alumni still generously supported the school during that period for which we are extraordinarily grateful.


A true community effort, here’s a snapshot of our results, by the numbers:

  • From Maine to Washington, California to Florida, donors from 21 states participated. Outside of the US, we received donations from alumni living in Germany, Italy, and Saudi Arabia.
  • Alumni from 41 different class years made gifts, and additional support came from friends and family members of Lawrence Academy. Faculty and staff – who already show their love of LA every day – represented 15 percent of our donors.
  • With 21 donors, the Class of 1970 had the largest number of participants. Many thanks to Kevin McDonald '70 for helping to motivate and inspire his class! In a tie for second place, the classes of 2010 and 1997 each had 9 donors. Thank you to Sara Gillis ’10, Danielle Doherty ’10, Catie McMenamin ’97, and Rob Achtmeyer ’97 for helping with their classes’ efforts.

Because we intentionally paused our Days of Giving campaign, we obviously fell significantly short of our 400-donor goal, and therefore the financial needs of the school for the 2019-2020 school year have not been fully met. We need as much alumni support as possible to help us during these challenging financial times and sincerely hope that you’ll consider making a gift to the LA Fund before June 30 if at all possible.
 
Finally, we are humbled by the outpouring of enthusiasm and support during these trying times, and remain grateful to you, our Lawrence Academy community.