On Feb. 18, the College hosted a record-breaking Giving Day. Annual Giving and Dolphin Athletics partnered to mobilize alumni, volunteers, faculty, staff, coaches and students to encourage donations with a goal of 1,750 donors in 24 hours in recognition of the College’s 75th Anniversary. Six global challenges were made on Giving Day.
Kurt ’86 and Karen Ohliger kicked off the day with a $25,000 challenge in support of initiatives and programs benefiting Le Moyne College students. They also doubled-down with another $25,000 gift which would match each new President's Club gift and each gift from the class of 1986 with $1,000 up to $25,000.
Our mid-day power hour was possible through the generosity of Mike Madden '71 who offered to match each gift that came in from noon to 1:00 pm with $750 up to $75,000. The results were astonishing - alumni donated 230 gifts in one hour.
As the day continued, Denise Missigman Quinn '78 and Dominick '76 and Rita Pullano offered $25,000 challenges to encourage participation from alumni. We met our 1,750 goal and urged the community to maintain the momentum with a new goal of 2,575 donors and a $25,000 challenge from Pete '78 and Tara Lee DiLaura '78.
To help ensure that we were able to achieve and even surpass our new aspirational goal, Mike Sicilian '83 called later in the day to offer a $50,000 challenge if we met our goal by midnight. With Mike's encouragement, we blew right by 2,575.
Nearly 3,200 members of our incredible Dolphin family donated more than $789,617 in support of current and future students. These remarkable results are only possible through the generosity of our alumni leaders, social media ambassadors and class advocates.
We are so grateful.
We asked our challenge donors to say a few words about why they supported Le Moyne this Giving Day.
Kurt ’86 and Karen Ohliger
“As the alum in the family (Karen went to RPI), there is so much I am grateful for from my Le Moyne days, probably way too much to condense into one or two sentences! From a professional standpoint, I am grateful for the skills I was taught, both technical and soft skills, that enabled me to succeed in my professional accounting career. From a personal standpoint, I am grateful for the group of classmates with whom I shared my four years, none more so than those closest to me 35 years later who I now think of as ‘family’."
Dominick '76 and Rita Pullano
“This being our 45th reunion year, we felt a challenge for the Class of '76 would be a positive message to support Le Moyne during this milestone. We won't all be there this summer to unite so rallying around this day in support was our goal.”
Mike Madden '71
“I wish people could appreciate how much satisfaction and pleasure one derives from seeing the benefits of giving and helping change the outcome for others. To that end, if you can, it’s a lot better to give while you are alive to see it than wait until you are dead.”
Denise Missigman Quinn '78
“I am grateful that Le Moyne enhanced the values I was brought up with. I am grateful that it challenged my thinking and caused me to think beyond myself. Personally and professionally, I enjoyed myself the most when working with others to make things better, sometimes for just one individual and other times for a group. That one positive experience can erase a lot of negatives. It could have been helping someone develop, grow and then watch them succeed at work, giving someone a second chance and having them share with you how that changed them, watching the excitement of a grade school student who just passed their reading achievement test at the Boys & Girls Club. Those are the things I remember and that mean the most to me. That's what can happen when you think beyond yourself.”
Pete '78 and Tara Lee DiLaura '78
“Le Moyne College will always be a special place for us and we wanted to give back in this way so that other students can hopefully experience the love and success that we have. It is a wonderful feeling to give back to your alma mater.”
Mike Sicilian '83
“What inspired me to give was knowing how these donations directly help our students in meeting day-to-day needs. Covid has had an impact that goes beyond the obvious, especially at Le Moyne College. While many schools stayed closed, we decided to try and stay open. From the faculty, to the administration, to the staff, and most importantly, our students, we tried to create a bit of normalcy in an environment that was anything but normal. That meant our students had certain needs in order to make that happen and this is one way to hopefully make it easier to provide those needs.”