Fall/Winter 2010 - Pingry School

[ PHILANTHROPY ]
No Reason to Wait: Duane
St. John ’50 Establishes
Charitable Gift Annuity
Nancy and Duane St. John ’50
“Why not”
Following his 60th
reunion in 2010,
Duane St. John ’50
and his wife Nancy
were unable to
answer that question
about establishing a
charitable gift annuity
at Pingry.
The St. Johns had been considering the idea ever since
they received the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of The Pingry
Review, which announced the charitable gift annuity
established by Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20
and his wife Elizabeth.
“That inside front cover announcement was a stroke of
genius because there are a lot of people who can’t be
larger givers who can now participate in this manner
and still maintain the proceeds until their death. This
gave us a chance to participate in the charitable gift
annuity program,” Mr. St. John says.
In recent years he has been attending Reunion every five
years to celebrate benchmark anniversaries. The most
recent Reunion ultimately inspired Mr. St. John and his
wife to make their decision because they were so impressed
with the current students and other members of the Pingry
community.
“A lot of it had to do with the important things I remember
from being a student at Pingry, including the teachers—definitely
[the late] Albie Booth—and the Honor
System: a moral compass enhanced by the Marine
Corps Core Values which carried me through the Chosin
Reservoir in the Korean War, Washington and Lee
University, and the rest of my life. I got more out of Pingry
than college, in terms of guidance for my life,” Mr. St.
John says. He even wrote a letter to the Headmaster at the
time, E. Laurence Springer, in December 1951, extolling
his Pingry education.
The other question that he and Mrs. St. John could not
answer after Reunion was, “Why are we waiting” Now
that they have proceeded to share their respect for Pingry
with the rest of the community, they hope others will also
say, “Why not”
Lower School Students
Become Gardeners
The plot of soil has been created, the fence has been
installed, and soon buds will be emerging through the
ground at the Short Hills Campus, where Lower School
students are about to embark on the journey of growing
their own plants in a Kitchen Garden.
Laura and Alex San Miguel P ’15, ’17, whose funding has
made the garden a reality, are impressed with the Short
Hills faculty members’ enthusiasm about how the garden
will be used and how gardening will be incorporated into
the curricula for science, history, math, and other subjects.
In fact, it was the teachers’ excitement that convinced the
San Miguels to fund the project. “The energy in the room
was palpable. These teachers so fully believe in the potential
teaching moments a garden will provide, and I have no
doubts that the project will have a positive influence on
the students who have the opportunity to experience it,”
Mrs. San Miguel says.
In the spring of 2009, several faculty members, including
Heather Smith-Willis P ’16, Brian LaFontaine P ’10, ’14, and
Patti Euwer P ’97, had suggested creating this garden as a link
to the curriculum and a source of produce for the campus’ food
service. Lower School Director Ted Corvino P ’94, ’97, ’02 also
embraced the idea from the perspective of student awareness
and giving students the experience of growing crops.
Originally, Mrs. San Miguel and other Lower School parents
were interested in the garden as a way for the Short
Hills lunch program to offer healthier food. “I’m a big
believer in wholesome nutrition, and I fully believe we have
a captive audience at Short Hills. This is a perfect opportunity
to instill good eating habits in the students and provide
them with the necessary nutritional information they will
need to make good food choices for the rest of their lives,”
Mrs. San Miguel says.
Pingry is also seeking funding for an additional garden at
the Martinsville Campus. For more information, contact
Major Gifts Officer David Greig ’98 in the Alumni and
Development Office at dgreig@pingry.org.
17
fall/winter 2010
For more information about Charitable Gift Annuities and
other planned gift opportunities, please contact Director
of Institutional Advancement Melanie Hoffmann P ’20 at
mhoffmann@pingry.org.