This October, Gettysburgians from across New England gathered in Boston for a weekend celebration to raise awareness of the College’s $150 million comprehensive fundraising campaign, Gettysburg Great: The Campaign for Our College.
The weekend featured several events, including a networking happy hour; Alumni College lectures from Physics Prof. Sharon Stephenson and Eisenhower Institute expert Avi Melamed; a Fenway Park tour led by Rob Blomberg ’76 P’14; and a marquee event at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
To date, the College has raised more than $122 million in cash and commitments for the Campaign’s five key priorities—global initiatives, scholarships, faculty support, engaged learning opportunities, and annual giving.
“This Gettysburg Great Campaign is important to me personally because it provides the financial support for students like me—and students from all backgrounds—to attend Gettysburg,” said political science major and Boston native Alyssa Waaramaa ’17, who addressed over 150 guests at the historic museum.
Waaramaa, a Punchatz Family Gettysburg Fund Named Scholarship recipient, was joined by fellow speakers James L. Chemel ’71, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and President Janet Morgan Riggs ’77, who emphasized the importance of bricks and mortar.
“Our students will enter a world filled with complex social, political, and environmental issues. As educators we need to prepare them for this world. Part of this preparation must include the transformation of Plank Gym into a vibrant global center right at the heart of our campus—this is essential,” Riggs said.
“Buildings matter. Done well, they enable new experiences and perspectives, they enable new energy for new work—and they have tremendous symbolic value as well. The renovation of Plank—the recasting of this iconic campus building as a global center—will create synergy among our global programs, and it will help to infuse global perspectives into the student experience like never before.”
The Boston weekend was the latest in a series of Campaign-themed gatherings over the last two years, including events in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City.
To learn more about the Gettysburg Great Campaign, visit www.gettysburg.edu/campaign or read about our fundraising effort in just 90 seconds.
