The Knights' Pages - Bishop O'Connell High School

Why We GiveMartha Holroyd Goetzman ’80 and Mark Goetzman ’77Parents of Jack ’08, Margaret ’10 and Emma ’12have a desire to participate in making thesegoals a reality.We think we all need a reminder as alumsand parents that Bishop O’Connell not onlywants but NEEDS our help in many waysand in particular and immediately, in afinancial way. There is a misperception bymany that tuition alone is enough to keepthe school running, updating and improvingand that the Diocese and individualparishes provide some financial funding.The only way to upgrade the facility, keepteachers and classrooms technologicallycurrent, maintain high standards for hiringand retaining teachers and staff, attractmore families and remain educationallycompetitive and spiritually supportive iswith the financial help, no matter howlarge or small.As alums, we happily support the AnnualFund as a way to give back to a schoolthat gave us so much both as students andparents. Undoubtedly, the education we receivedwas great preparation for our yearsof college and graduate studies and we givea nod of appreciation to our parents forchoosing Bishop O’Connell for us. We lookback warmly and are so grateful for therelationships and friendships we made andhave maintained since. We share our fondmemories with all of our siblings and ourthree children who also attended BishopO’Connell. O’Connell is and always hasbeen full of great people…teachers, staff,clergy, students, families, and more! Onceyou join this community, you are always amember of the O’Connell family, and forthat alone, we feel we have an obligationand hope we all have some desire to givesomething back.We returned to O’Connell in 2004, whenwe started looking at various schools foreach of our children, and determined withthem that Bishop O’Connell was the bestchoice. We were happy to find that thecommunity was the same warm, nurturing,spiritual, inviting place we left in 1980,however there were many improvementsto the facility, updates to the curriculum,support for the teachers and necessary fundraisingefforts needed. We were happy tobe a part of some of the changes that haveoccurred and some of the long-term visionsthat are still being formulated and realized.These many goals cannot be reached forour children, our school and our communitywithout the financial contributionsof each family in some way, in particularthrough the Annual Fund. We all wantour school to be the best it can possibly benow and in the future, and once again, wefeel we each have an obligation and should14