Queens County is rallying to ensure LRHS graduates receive their scholarships

Fundraising for Liverpool Regional High School graduates has taken on new life online.

The annual LRHS Foundation auction, the main fundraiser providing scholarships to graduating students, was cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.

Teacher Claudine LeBlanc has helped organize the event for the past number of years and didn’t want to break the 22-year tradition.

“I wasn’t willing to not have our graduates receive something, receive their due.”

With schools closed until at least May 15, she realized there wouldn’t be time to organize their traditional auction.

LeBlanc decided to reach out to the community through Facebook.

“I just sort of said, if anybody’s interested in donating, and truly in my heart I thought, ok, well, let’s start with $2,000 and see where we go.”

She was overwhelmed when 24 hours later the total was climbing past $6,000.

Each year, the Liverpool Regional High School Foundation hands out $20,000 in scholarships to its graduates.

LeBlanc says LRHS is one of only two schools in North America she has found that provides this kind of support for their students.

She says it’s only possible because of how invested residents of Queens County are in the school; and that makes cancelling the annual auction that much more disappointing.

“It’s one of those rare times you get to open the school up to the whole community. You open the doors, everybody comes in, everybody’s there for a reason. It’s so nice to see. For me, I always tell people, it’s the highlight of my school year.”

LeBlanc says since the auction began 22 years ago, the LRHS Foundation has awarded almost half a million dollars to over 400 students.

After teaching at Liverpool Regional High School for 17 years she has come to know just how giving the community is.

“I would not be surprised to see our total exactly where it would have been had we had an actual auction. We always aim for $20,000 but if we hit $18,000, that won’t surprise me that people will be that generous.”

LeBlanc says she plans to keep the Facebook donation page open until June first.

Usually, the foundation distributes 20 $1,000 scholarships each year.

LeBlanc says once the fundraiser closes, she and the foundation members will look at how much has been raised to determine if they will hand out a number of $1,000 scholarships or divide the total among a set number of students.

Anyone interested in donating to the Liverpool Regional High School Scholarship Foundation can follow this link.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson