Maritime Center of Excellence
UPDATE JUNE 2023
The Class of 1980 Gift Committee is writing to update you on our efforts to meet our fundraising pledge in support of the Maritime Center of Excellence. The MCOE is a great physical manifestation of our class motto; Old Traditions, New Horizons. With the MCOE operational opening on July 27, we think now is a good time to appeal for everyone’s help to reach our goal. Here is the state of the campaign by the numbers.
$280,000 Class of 1980 pledge, due by Homecoming 2025
$163,247 Donations to date
$116,753 Amount left to raise
79 Classmates who have donated directly to the MCOE
To contribute, and to have a room in the building named in our honor, go to
https://www.cgaalumni.org/s/
and click on ‘WAYS TO GIVE’. Please make sure your donation is earmarked for the Class of 1980 MCOE.
John Cordes johncordes@yahoo.com
Mary Elwood mlsouthwood@gmail.com
Tami Goodwin stgood1@new.rr.com
Robert McCaffrey rfmccaffrey@gmail.com
Larry White lrwhitecma@hotmail.com
MJ Wixsom guardiananimal@roadrunner.com
Mark Yost markjyost@hotmail.com
Bill Zack coachbillzack@gmail.com
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Here is the original that was letter sent out in September 2020:
Dear Classmate,
We hope you and your loved ones are healthy and safe during these turbulent times. The coronavirus has unfortunately delayed our 40th Class Reunion in New London until October of 2021, but we don’t want to delay presenting the Class of 1980 with an opportunity to give back by supporting the construction of the Academy’s Maritime Center of Excellence (MCOE).
As you know, we made the $80,000 goal that we set for the 35th Reunion to support the Coast Guard Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI). Thank you to all who contributed directly to the WLI and thank you to all who contributed through donations to the Class of 1980 Fund as well.
For our 40th Reunion, we are asking the Class to take it to the next level. As you may know, Pine Hall is being replaced with the MCOE, which will provide a broad range of educational, recruitment, outreach and waterfront operational needs while serving as the centerpiece of the Academy waterfront. The attached pamphlet describes the new Maritime Center in detail. The Total Project Budget for the MCOE is $21 million.
The purpose of this letter is to appeal to your spirit to “leave it better than you found it” and to ask for a financial pledge to the fundraising effort to build the MCOE. We want to establish a gift from the Class of 1980 to the Academy. Our goal is to spread pledges over the next five years culminating with a total contribution of $280,000 by our 45th reunion in 2025.
Now for the ask. Over the next five years, our hope is to secure pledges and contributions from as many of our classmates as possible. However, recognizing our typical participation rate, we are asking you for a personal 5-year pledge of $3,000 ($600 per year), which amounts to about $50 per month, to attain our goal. If we reach this goal, our Class will be recognized appropriately, including a plaque in an appropriate area of the MCOE.
So, with the goal to raise $280,000 in classmate gifts and pledges (which can be spread over the next five years), we are asking for a commitment to help us plan. Attached is a “Class of 1980 Letter of Intent” to help focus our individual commitments. Please return the Letter of Intent directly to the USCGA Alumni Association.
Of the funds that our class generates for this project, we propose to earmark $80,000 in memory of our classmates who have “crossed the bar,” most recently Trish Winter, Ken Wilson and Gary Smialek.
We ask you to be as generous as you feel comfortable. Most importantly, we ask you to contribute something so that our gift truly reflects our generosity as a class. Even though we can’t be there in person this fall, we’d like to present our total pledge to the Academy in October. Thus, it would help to know your giving decision by returning the enclosed Letter of Intent as soon as possible. Please contact any of us if you have questions.
Thank you for your past contributions to our Class, to the Academy, to the U.S. Coast Guard and to the United States of America. With your support, we can pull together to make the Class of 1980 a key contributor for the CGA Maritime Center of Excellence. Go 80!
Signed,
Class of 1980 Gift Committee