Honoring its annual tradition despite the global pandemic, Good Counsel is hosting its 2020 Raffle Ticket Drive. Students, faculty and staff, and families can buy raffle tickets to support the school for a chance to win $10,000! Although many know that the raffle is happening, you may not know how the raffle money will be used. To find more information about this, I contacted Mrs. Jessica Sardella, the Director of Annual Giving at Good Counsel, about this year’s raffle fund. As a student body, we could learn more about why we sell raffle tickets, besides the dress down days and extra-long Thanksgiving Break!

The first thing I learned about the raffle was that it “supports the Fund for Good Counsel. The Fund is Good Counsel’s ongoing fundraising effort to provide unrestricted funds to the school to support our greatest needs,” Mrs. Sardella wrote. Specifically, the raffle helps to support the school through two categories: tuition and fundraising. Fundraising at Good Counsel is “the lifeblood of the school” because it helps to support students and faculty/staff. The funds raised go towards the arts, athletics, faculty development, financial aid, and service. Because of the ongoing pandemic, these funds are more crucial than ever, especially for the “increase in the need for emergency financial aid and the new pandemic-related expenses of virtual learning technology, PPE and cleaning supplies.”

The raffle funds support all students, faculty and staff, and academic programs at Good Counsel. All the funds raised this year will help our Good Counsel community. The proceeds will go not only to financial aid but also to addressing problems the Good Counsel community faces during the year. Regarding financial aid, with this year’s raffle and other donations the school has received, Mrs. Sardella shares, “we have seen an increase of approximately $500,000 in financial aid support given out to Good Counsel families, so the monies received from the raffle and other donations will help greatly in meeting this need”.  We also see that the raffle has taken a different approach this year, as it is the first-ever entirely virtual raffle the school has done. 

Good luck to everyone participating in the raffle. Remember that you are helping the entire Good Counsel Family by selling and purchasing raffle tickets!