Parent Profile: Hubbard Family

Creative Stewardship is Key

As president of the St. John’s Parents’ Club in 2020-'21, Nicole Hubbard and the Parents’ Club Board has worked tirelessly to help the school reach new levels of participation in the St. John’s Eagles Fund.

“Parent participation in the Eagles Fund went from 15% to 70% in the middle of a pandemic!!” says Nicole. “I’m proud that so many of our parents stepped up and asked how they could help and what they could do to get involved. We have an engaged community of families and that’s exciting for St. John’s.”

With husband Matt, Nicole has seen the effects of the generous donations on the education received by their children (4th grader Ansley and 6th grader Austin), who have both attended St. John’s since Pre-K.

“The Eagles Fund covers all of our school’s needs and dreams,” explains Nicole. “Eagles Fund donations allowed every single item on the Teacher Wish Lists to be fulfilled in 2020-21.” Wish Lists included a wide variety of teaching tools, ranging from Lego Mindstorm robotics kits, microscopes, and other STEM tools to iPads and Clear Touch devices to name a few.

“In this challenging year, the mission was to pivot quickly and creatively, be good stewards of the donations, and try to help the children’s lives remain as normal as possible,” says Nicole.

“The Parents’ Club contributed in many ways, creating new approaches to events by making them smaller to allow social distancing, and even creating some new ones like end-of-year celebrations for all grade levels,” says Nicole. “We had to reimagine certain events, but that didn’t stop us from creating unique and fun opportunities for the kids.” The Parents’ Club hosted a Teacher Appreciation week, treating the faculty and administration to delicious catered lunches and sweet surprises for all of the teachers. “This pandemic has been hard on everyone, and we are so appreciative of all of the efforts the faculty and administration have taken to not only keep our kids learning safely in school, but in the most ‘normal’ way,” shares Nicole.

Matt cites the strong return on investment of donating to their children’s school. “Our children are spending a good portion of their time at school, and we’d be hard pressed to find a better place to give money,” he says. “We are giving back not only for our children, but for future generations as well. We can clearly see how the money is spent, and we are grateful to be a part of something that is enriching the culture of the St. John’s community.”

Having co-chaired the Parents’ Club largest event fundraiser, Celebratio, for two years with Jenny Spencer, Nicole praises the recent shift in fundraising efforts, now led by the school’s Advancement Office. Parents’ Club members remain key to the events’ success by volunteering their talent and time. Nicole praises the school’s Advancement leadership for providing clarity on Eagles Fund giving. “Over the last few years, they have done a great job of explaining the school’s needs and how the donations are used,” she adds.

Nicole also praises school leadership for their ability to pivot and creatively lead the St. John’s community when the pandemic hit. “They did a great job getting us back to school safely,” she enthuses.

Eagles Fund donations, supported by Celebratio proceeds, funded the safety measures: acrylic sneeze guards for every child, PikMyKid mobile app to ensure student dismissals in lower and middle divisions are safe and efficient, hand sanitizing stations, bottle filling stations, signage reinforcing the importance of good hygiene, and the addition of our experienced school nurse to St. John’s faculty. The Eagles Fund also provided all faculty and administration with a larger than usual bonus in the 2020-'21 school year to show appreciation for all the time and effort spent during such an unprecedented time. Nicole exclaims, “No other area school matched the thorough and proactive measures like St. John’s has to keep our students and employees safe during the school year and that makes me so proud!”