December 8, 2021

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

MASSENA – They didn’t just meet the challenge, they exceeded it.

Trinity Catholic School in Massena was the beneficiary of a generous anonymous donation of $10,000 for its annual “One Day of Giving,” held annually on what’s become known as Giving Tuesday, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. However, to receive the donation, the school had to rally supporters to match it.

“Not only did we match that for a guaranteed $20,000 to kick start our annual Trinity Fund campaign, but our supporters went above and beyond for our school,” said Sarah Tsibulsky, Trinity’s advancement director. “In total, we raised over $76,000 in one day.”

The school received donations from around the Massena area and around the country.

“In addition to the $10,000 matching donation, we were also gifted an anonymous donation of $14,000,” Tsibulsky said. “This loving and generous support came from the pockets of current families, former families, grandparents, alumni, local organizations, and supporters of Catholic education. While Massena and the surrounding communities make up a large part of our donations, we have supporters from as far as Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Nebraska, and California! How amazing is that? Next year, I’d love to see every state represented!”

The One Day of Giving was announced to school supporters over a month ago and was communicated in a variety of ways.

“Our One Day of Giving starts with a mailer in October, which includes a letter written both from a parent on why they choose to send their child to Trinity and from the principal, detailing why we raise money for the annual fund; a small flyer detailing our One Day of Giving event specifically; and a donation card,” Tsibulsky said. “This gets sent to all mailable constituents in our database. This year, there were just over 2,000 letters. We also promote it on our Facebook page, as well as the church bulletin. Our local radio station, WMSA, usually comes and broadcasts from our school on the day as a way of getting our event out there. On the day of the event, we go live on Facebook about every half an hour to update the total and to showcase our beautiful students. That's the fun part!”

The radio broadcast also helped listeners experience Catholic education.

“Elijah from WMSA not only broadcasted from our school, he actually followed me around as I visited the classrooms to update the total, so the radio listeners got a peek into our classrooms, whether it was hearing a song the students sang, a lesson they were learning, or hearing the students pray as part of their day,” Tsibulsky said.

The funds collected as part of the One Day of Giving will be used to support Catholic education at Trinity.

“Every penny goes into giving our students the best education they can receive,” Tsibulsky said. “It also helps to close the gap between the cost of educating our students and what we receive in tuition and subsidies from our local parishes. You can donate to this fund at any time, if you missed this event.”

In addition to the One Day of Giving, Trinity hosts a winter raffle, which is currently running, as well as a Gala, currently scheduled for May 7, to support the school. The support from the school community enables the school to continue providing quality Catholic education to Massena and surrounding communities.

“Although I am in the process of writing ‘thank you’ notes to each of our donors, I could not continue without pausing to say how appreciative we are of every one of (the school’s donors, volunteers and supporters) for the extra time and energy you put into our school,” Tsibulsky said. “As the saying goes, ‘It takes a village.’ It absolutely takes every one of our Trinity families, faculty, and staff members, as well as the kind and generous efforts of our loving donors, to keep Trinity thriving. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”