This is Terry McSheehy’s, CHSAA President’s Message as published in the 2017 Winter edition of the Lion’s Pride.  It outlines the vision and purpose of our Capital Campaign.  There are links to information on how to donate as well as the position of Capital Campaign Director/Executive Director.

President’s Message

I hope everyone has survived the winter so far.  It is early January as I write this and looks like we may be in for an easy winter here in the Northeast.  Hopefully I have not just jinxed us!  

I want to take the opportunity in this space to announce the re-institution of the CHSAA Capital Campaign and to explain what we are hoping to accomplish with it.  

There are three phases to the Capital Campaign.

Phase One is to raise 2 million dollars to endow a full time Executive Director and Administrative Assistant to handle the day-to-day tasks required to keep the CHSAA running.  We have been extremely fortunate and blessed to have George Simonian fulfill this role since the very inception of the CHSAA.  He has given freely of his time to grow this organization from a dream of three people into what is one of the only public high school Alumni Associations of its kind in the country.  He had the full support of his lovely wife Lucy for much of this effort.   I know George works 50-60 hours most weeks and his new Administrative Assistant gives another 10 plus hours a week to the CHSAA.  Going forward there is no way I foresee anyone giving that much time to the CHSAA for free.  No one else would have the love and drive to do that.  Therefore we will need to pay an Executive Director and an Administrative Assistant to perform those tasks on a daily basis.

Phase Two is to raise another 2 plus million to endow the day-to-day operating expenses of the CHSAA.  These include printing cost, mailing cost, buying of supplies, running programs such as Scholarship Awards night, the SHARE program (a mentoring program for CHS seniors), the annual meeting just to mention some.  But anyone who manages a home or a business knows that there are a myriad of costs associated with its operation.

Phase Three is the monies necessary to build and maintain a building.  I know that some people have questioned the need for such a facility.  I will explain why I am convinced that we need an Alumni Hall.  Right now all meetings take place either in the High School or at George Simonian’s home.  Now I don’t know of many people who would enjoy having hundreds of people traipsing through their house on almost a daily basis.   I know how fortunate George was to have had such a willing partner in Lucy who not only allowed but embraced having people in her home at all hours of the day and evening.  I do not see this happening again.  Therefore we need a place to conduct the business of the CHSAA on a daily basis.  We also need a place for the Executive Director and his Administrative Assistant to work together.  Right now the Executive Director and his Admin work separately out of their own homes.  This is not conducive to a well-run and efficient operation.  We need to have a central location where they can work side by side to smoothly maintain the operation of the CHSAA. 

Every year the School department/CHS disposes of artifacts and historical memorabilia due to a lack of space to store it.  The function of the School department/CHS is not to preserve the past of CHS but to look to the present and future of CHS and its students.  It is the responsibility and our mission to preserve and maintain the history of CHS for future generations so that they might see who their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents/great-great-grandparents were and what CHS and the town were like in those days.  The records that we would keep in such a building would be a window into the past. The town motto is “Let the children guard what the sires have won”.  Our duty is to assist in this effort and to have a place to maintain the historical records (whether they be sports/the arts/yearbooks or whatever) of CHS for future generations.

We also would like to have a place for alumni to gather to promote fellowship with and among alumni of all years.  It would serve to allow us to hold social events (i.e. reunions, homecoming) to gather alumni from all years to converse and share their histories with each other.

Click Here for information for donating to the CHSAA Capital Campaign