Creative Tuition Assistance for Bethany Students

Recognizing that the current national economic downturn has disproportionately affected the northern Indiana region and that since Bethany is a private Christian school, families and organizations pay tuition, the PTO of Bethany Christian Schools has proposed a grassroots approach to generate additional tuition funds to enable students to remain at Bethany and encourage new students to apply.

As a private Christian school that students choose to attend, Bethany’s greatest strengths are the families, churches, and extended communities of current Bethany students. 

While recognizing that alumni and other constituents provide essential on-going support, we believe Bethany’s current student body and their families can do much to help sustain each other through this current economic hardship.

One mother of Bethany students, states:

“ I have been asked to give volunteer time for specific events.  These hours yield more social benefit than income.  I could do more.  If Bethany is willing to ask me to bake cookies for two hours, why not ask me to consider ‘gifting’ two hours of my professional time?  I am willing to gift two hours of income generating time to provide tuition funds that will keep Bethany’s student body, academics, music, arts and athletic programs strong.  I believe other parents would be willing to do the same.”

We, the PTO, believe Bethany family, faculty and staff can creatively identify a “gifting” idea that would yield $100.  What can you do to meet this challenge before December 31, 2009?

In addition to gifting income-generating time, here are other examples of creating a “gift (see Ideas for a longer list):”

• Hank Willems – “I will give up cable for two summer months and gift the $114 savings.”
• Elyse and Lucas Morgan family – “We will can and freeze fruits and vegetables and gift the savings.”
• Si and Sadie Gustafson-Zook family – “We will sell an instrument (that we haven't been using much) and give $200 from the sale of that instrument to the Bethany PTO Gift of Tuition fund.” 

Through such creative approaches, we believe the Bethany community together can develop a significant tuition-sharing fund to supplement Bethany’s existing tuition assistance fund.  The PTO tuition-sharing fund will be used to provide additional support for families of current students and new students for which Bethany’s available tuition assistance dollars are not enough to make it possible to attend.

Let us know what “gifting” ideas you create!  Please download the Gift of Tuition card and mail it along with your tax deductible gift to Bethany Christian Schools, 2904 South Main Street, Goshen, IN  46526-5499.

Karla Minter, PTO Representative
Hank Willems, Assistant Principal