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Support

Ascension

School

How Can You Help?

Ascension is blessed with a generous and committed extended family and has benefited in many ways throughout the years from their kindness.  While we are always seeking ways to offset general operating expenses and thus reduce the tuition burden on school families, we have also developed programs that allow our benefactors to choose a specific way to help.

How can you help?  The profits from the following fundraising activities go directly to the operating budget:  the Annual School Auction, the Kathy Adams Run-a-thon, the Shopping Certificate Program, Market Day, Market Basket and Schoolpop.com.  For more information about any of these programs, please call the Advancement Office, 708-848-2703 ext. 258 or e-mail us at the Office of Institutional Advancement .

You can also support Ascension by going to the Forms page of our site and clicking on the amazon.com "portal" you find there.  Four to nine percent of your amazon.com purchases are deposited directly into Ascension's account when you begin your shopping trip at our web site.

For specific ways to help:

The Professional Development Fund, begun in the spring of 2005, helps our faculty and staff continue their professional growth by continuing their education. Begun with generous pledges from two school families, and then expanded with gifts from many of our constituents, the fund has granted over $46,000 in tuition assistance, books, fees and workshop registrations in its first year.  Ten members of the faculty have benefited from the kind support of the friends of Ascension who contributed to the PDF. 

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Teach the Children is a program designed to support the educational ministry of Ascension Parish.  The funds we receive through an annual solicitation will help families who need assistance with school or religious education tuition and fees and will help the new Christo Rey school in the Austin neighborhood, Christ the King. 

Project: Pine Room is the fund established with the first Annual Alumni Appeal, and expanded with memorial gifts throughout several years, to help repay the loan from the Archdiocese which made the renovation possible.  You do not have to be an alumnus to contribute to the Project: Pine Room fund. Click the photo to read about the Pine Room Project.

The Reese Family Ascension Alumni Scholarship Fund was formed in 2007 with a generous gift from George ('52) and Mike ('55) Reese.  The fund is held by Chicago Community Trust and is designed to help make a Catholic education available to families who would not otherwise be able to afford it.  Gifts to the Reese Fund are most welcome; indicate your interest in supporting the Fund on your check to Ascension School and it will be forwarded to Chicago Community Trust. Help us to build our future by supporting the Reese Fund.

Memorial Gifts and Named Scholarships help support our Teach the Children program.  Please contact the Advancement Office if you are interested in supporting the educational ministry of Ascension with a gift in memory or in honor of a loved one.

The Ascension School Endowment Fund is another way to invest in the future of Ascension School.  The formation of the endowment is currently pending School Board approval; with the benefits of the Alumni & Friends Golf Outing in June, 2008 we reached the $10,000 necessary to open the fund with the Archdiocese.  Express your confidence in our next one hundred years by contributing to the endowment!

The Annual Alumni Appeal reaches out to Ascension grads to help sustain the growth and vitality of Ascension School.  The first and second appeals, held in 2002 and 2003, raised over $80,000 for the renovation of the Pine Room.  About half of that amount was donated by several families who have chosen to dedicate classrooms in honor of loved ones. The third appeal, 2004, raised about $15,000 for science and technology:  helping with an update of the science and computer labs.  The appeals in 2005 and 2006 benefited the school's operating budget.  In 2007, as the parish celebrated its centennial, the school launched The Centennial Fund to prepare for the school centennial in 2012.  The Alumni Appeal will build the Centennial Fund for four additional years, until 2012.

If you are a 'missing' or newly found alumnus and would like more information on the appeal -- or if you are interested learning more about making a major gift to our school -- please call Lynn Fredrick, Director of Institutional Advancement, 708-434-1558

Now you can Support Ascension by contributing on-line.

Lynn Fredrick, Director of Institutional Advancement, 708-434-1558 or e-mail us at the Office of Institutional Advancement