A Presidential Celebration

FWCD’s campus was abuzz with presidential fanfare on Wednesday, September 13. Past Presidents or Chairs of the School’s Alumni Council, Falcon Club, FWCD Fund, Parent Faculty Association and Supporting CAST gathered together for a special luncheon to celebrate their dynamic leadership in the School’s 60th birthday year and learn about FWCD’s Forward Together Comprehensive Campaign. 

“This is a collection of FWCD royalty,” said Eric Lombardi, Head of School, as he looked around the Lou and Nick Martin Campus Center. “ We are not celebrating a 60th birthday, let alone a 60th birthday in which we are vibrant and thriving, without the time, the thought, the heart you put into the School where you sent your children.”

While many in that room had been around for School milestones in FWCD’s six decades, only one person had been present before the School even celebrated a first birthday. Patricia Schutts H’13, one of the 16 Founding Board of Trustees members who dreamed of a college-preparatory day school in the early 1960s, received rousing applause when mentioned. She also served as the 1973-74 PFA President. 

Taking the value of a volunteer further, Lombardi focused on the mega value of the mega volunteer. “Volunteers are the lifeblood, but the mega volunteers are the heart that gets that blood flowing. Volunteers are the threads in the FWCD plaid; the mega volunteers are the weavers of those threads,” he said. 

Alison Gengelbach, 2023-24 Parent Faculty Association President ,was the luncheon’s emcee. She asked the Past Presidents and Chairs to think of some of the significant changes instituted on their watch – things like the introduction of the Ninth Grade Homecoming Event, the Falcon 411, the biennial celebration of alumni accomplishments at the Alumni Awards, personalized post-it notes in FWCD Fund letters, Pumpkin Patch and the silent auction, and more and feel a sense of pride. 

One thing FWCD’s first and 60th year have in common is a campaign to raise support for the School. Heather Senter, Chair of the public phase of the Forward Together Comprehensive Campaign, shared with the Past Presidents that this campaign is the most extensive comprehensive campaign in the School’s history.  

“It is my pleasure to provide an advance look at the campaign, which will publicly kick off and be announced to the Falcon community on October 6,” she said. “The campaign is a community-wide effort to secure gifts, pledges and private financial support for important priorities for the School, including a new lower school building; athletic field enhancements, which have been completed thanks to 21 families stepping forward to allow us to complete the project so quickly; our endowment, which ensures financial stability sustainability and the continuation of outstanding teaching and academic experiences for our students; and the FWCD Fund, the School’s annual fund, which supports the annual operating budget.”

Every person present at the luncheon saw Fort Worth Country Day as a special community …  a community worth investing in. “We are so lucky to have a culture of volunteering at FWCD, and our mega volunteers sustain this culture,” Lombardi noted. “Thank you for joining us to celebrate our 60th, but mostly, thanks for letting us as a school celebrate you.”

Pictured above are Head of School Eric Lombardi, Founding Trustee Patricia Schutts H’13 and Board of Trustees President Brian Crumley ’92.