In August of 2022, a group of Alumni from the New Berlin West Class of 1970 decided to take the proceeds from their 50th Class Reunion and provide scholarships to the graduates from New Berlin Eisenhower and New Berlin West. These scholarships would be directed toward those students who want to attend vocational, or trade schools as well as apprenticeship programs. At our annual picnic, we formalized the New Berlin High Schools Alumni Foundation, Inc. One year later, we have surpassed our expectations.
Directors
I cannot say enough about our Board of Directors. Their efforts have helped NBHSAF achieve numerous goals over the past 12 months. Without them, we would not be in the position that we are in today.
Dan Slane has been elected President of the Foundation. His generosity and use of Penny Lane for our business meetings are greatly appreciated. His background within the construction trades and unions has been an asset in developing long-term relationships to further the New Berlin High Schools Alumni Foundation goals.
Patti (Osowicz) Tennyck and Peggy (Tischer) Wiese serve as the Co-Treasurers of NBHSAF. With their guidance, our Scholarship Fund continues to grow through good investments and accounting practices. Additionally, Peggy has been the lesion with the high schools to promote scholarship opportunities to the students at New Berlin West and New Berlin Eisenhower High Schools.
Jone (Kwiatkowski) Chovanec is our Secretary and keeps the official record of the by-laws and our monthly meetings. Jone also seeks out opportunities within the community in which NBHSAF can participate.
Gary Shultis has provided guidance in developing our Foundation By-Laws, Scholarship Application, and the Brewer’s Sweepstake and Award Rules.
The remainder of the Board consists of Chris (Brodzeller) Pilacek, Claudia (Brewer) Campion, and Patti (Hinterberg) Staffeldt. Their tireless contributions of time and brainstorming have helped get us to where we are today.
To all of the Directors, thank you for all that you have done for the Foundation.
The Scholarship Fund Financials
Income
The New Berlin West Class of 1970 started the Foundation with a donation of $3,500 in 2022 Shortly after that, the New Berlin West and Eisenhower Classes of 1971 and 1972 made a combined donation of $700.00. Recently, the New Berlin West Class of 1973 donated another $300. We have also received individual donations that totaled $2,500. From our social Gatherings, we have collected another $350. That gives the Foundation a total of $4,500.00.
In addition, the Foundation also received Home Depot and Milwaukee Brewer gift cards from generous donors totaling another $350. The donor and patron support for the Foundation is strong and continues to grow.
Expenses
Let me begin by saying that most non-profits have expenses that are typically in the 15 to 25% range of their donations. Thanks to Blue Collar Marketing, Inc., the cost of the domain, hosting, website, and software, plus the management hours, have all been donated to the Foundation. That saved the Foundation between $4,000 and $6,000. The other expenses for paper, banners, signs, and other miscellaneous costs have been picked up by the Directors.
The bottom line is that 100% of the donations that the New Berlin High Schools Alumni Foundation receives go directly toward the Scholarship Fund.
2023 Review
Scholarship Awards
2023 was the first year for the New Berlin High Schools Alumni Foundation Scholarship Award. Beyond developing the application for the students, we needed to create the criteria for the selection process. Additionally, we needed to get the schools involved in promoting our scholarship to the student bodies for each of the schools.
The Foundation awarded one scholarship and that went to Tyler Haskey from New Berlin West. The submissions that we received from New Berlin Eisenhower were ineligible based on the applicants who were planning on attending four-year colleges.
Promoting NBHSAF
Website
The website receives between 50 and 125 visits per week. The most visits occurred during the Brewer Gift Card and Scholarship Application promotions. 15% of the visitors looked at 4 to 6 pages. The website generated 85 people signing up for newsletters with no one requesting to be removed from the email list.
The NBHSAF Facebook page, over the past 5 months, has been reaching 800+ views per month. The page is linked to 22 Facebook Groups. Most of the groups are West and Eisenhower high school related groups and allow NBHSAF publishing to their group. This arrangement is driving views to our Facebook page and website.
Fourth of July Parade
NBHSAF entered the New Berlin Fourth of July Parade and promoted our Brewer giveaway using QR Code display boards. The crowd reaction was better than expected with approximately 200 people using the QR Code along the shortened parade route due to construction. Unfortunately, the link was temporarily down between the QR Code and the NBHSAF website for a few hours. That limited people from being able to register. We did receive 56 additional email addresses for our newsletter.
Future of NBHSAF
What the New Berlin High Schools Alumni Foundation has accomplished within the past twelve months is quite amazing. This can be attributed to the hard work of the Board of Directors. Without their dedication, we wouldn’t be where we are today.