Oh, What A Night!

By: Casey Hall O’Rourke ’90, Director of Institutional Advancement, and Julie Lundgren, Director of Development and Alumnae Relations

Oh, what a night! Last month’s House Party on the Ridge will go down as one to celebrate!

Almost 200 guests, including parents, alumnae, faculty, staff and students, gathered in our gym to support our school. The event started with a surprise hail and snowstorm that blew in just as guests were arriving, but that didn’t dampen the mood one bit. In fact, we had one of our most successful auctions in years! Together, our community raised over $219,000—a 44% increase from the previous year!

This big win can be attributed to many factors, one of which is the volunteer help we received from our entire community. The parent-lead auction committee worked for months to plan the event and procure an impressive catalog of wines, vacation destinations and more. When it was time for the House Party, many parents and faculty stepped in and lent a hand to transform the gym into a magical space. From set up, to banking, to coordinating student volunteers, and to everything in between, the support was tremendous, all the way through the next morning when we put it all back together to be ready for a full day of classes in the gym.

This year, the House Party event and auction will support the 2020 Fund-A-Need benefiting our Campus, Curriculum and Community. The success of this event will have an immediate impact on our students by supporting innovative curriculum and caring for our beautiful, 19-acre campus.

If you haven’t seen our 2020 Fund-A-Need video, we encourage you to take a look and see why Forest Ridge is a Community that Can.