For the third year in a row, Elizabethtown College will be holding the “Make a Deposit, Make a Difference” campaign from Feb. 12 to March 12. For all first-year students that enroll during the campaign, the College will match the deposits up to their goal. The goal is set at $15,000 and the money will be donated to three partnering organizations.
The campaign was a group effort. It began three years ago and has continued into this year. Vice President for Enrollment John Champoli credited Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management Adam Smith for helping spark the idea for this campaign. In an interview, Champoli mentioned Smith having a conversation with a family three years ago. The family wanted to pay their first-year deposit early and donate to a fundraiser. “Smith’s idea after talking to a family of a normal course of doing business, out of that just sparked that family wanting to donate, that’s kind of how it started,” Champoli said.
The organizations that the College is partnering with are the Milagro House, Water Street Mission and Downtown Daily Bread. The Milagro House is an organization in Lancaster, Pa. that offers supportive services, education and housing for homeless women and their children in need. Water Street Mission is another organization in the Lancaster area that looks to provide restorative services for people who need emergency housing and are in extreme poverty. Finally, Downtown Daily Bread in the Harrisburg area does shelter work and acts as a resource center for all those who are hungry and homeless. “They stood out in a variety of ways,” Champoli said. “Being a part of the local community was the big thing,” he later said. He went on to highlight the great services that each of the organizations provides. When asked about why those three were chosen specifically, Champoli said, “This year they rose to the top of the need list for us.”
The main end goal for this campaign is matching $15,000 in deposits for first-year student enrollment. There are also goals that go beyond a dollar amount, though. The College hopes to be able to assist the groups listed above while also meeting the school’s motto, “educate for service.” In response to what the in-depth goals for this year’s goals are, Champoli mentioned “To bring immediate assistance to those groups and support and to let our incoming students feel a part of that ‘educate for service’ motto.” He went on to say later in the interview, “It’s almost like preparing them for their journey at Etown. This is more than going to school and getting a degree.” This campaign highlights what it means to be a student at Etown, going beyond education in the classroom and becoming more aware of our community.
While it is still early in the process, there has been substantial progress already made. As of Feb. 19, the College is already almost halfway to reaching its dollar goal. “We’re almost halfway there. We’re about $6,800 there and we’ve got until March 12 to raise the rest of the money,” Champoli happily mentioned. He was very confident in reaching the end goal, saying “We should be in good stead. We’ve got over 100 students that have signed up for the March 12 accepted student [day], so I think the ones who deposit by that day will be able to push us over the top and hit that goal again.”
The College is clearly on a good pace and should be able to reach that goal in no time.
