#Sluhday is trending! Well, maybe not nationwide, but at least throughout the halls of campus last week, as students, faculty, and alumni posted, tweeted, and tagged photos with the hashtag honoring the annual celebration of St. Louis U. High Day.  

For the third year in a row since its inception in 2018, the city of St. Louis, and specifically the SLUH community, gathered to recognize the birthday of the oldest high school in the city. At 202 years old, SLU High has served thousands of students and the success of last week’s online giving commemorated that. From last Thursday to this past Monday, SLUH’s Advancement Office once again held its phone-a-thon aimed at raising money for the Jr. Bill fund, although the event looked much different this year in the midst of a pandemic.

“It’s awful planning virtual events,” said Director of Alumni and Parent Giving John Penilla. “We wanted (SLU High day) to be a party, a celebration, and last year I feel like we really had that. It was fun, it was a party atmosphere. So to lose that this year was a real blow.”

Now, faced with the unique challenges of COVID-19 but driven by the same love of SLU High, the Advancement team had volunteers call from their homes, which made it difficult to oversee the night’s success. Volunteers quickly put the uncertainty aside though, as donations came flooding in over the five-day giving period, totalling well over $400,000 dollars from 770 different donors.

This year’s total, even though the phone-a-thon was virtual, raised over $50,000 more than last year and even exceeded this year’s expectations, making it a huge success.

“(SLU High day is) going great, our goal was $325,000, so we’ve crushed it,” said Penilla. “(We knew) that we needed to back off (from last year’s total) a little bit but also that the need hasn't gone away, it’s gone up really. We were really buoyed by some amazing challenge gifts this year.”

One of the largest gifts came from John Schaefer (a’70), a member of  SLUH’s board of trustees, who put $50,000, plus more in challenge goals, toward the Jr. Bill Fund. For Schaefer, it was nostalgia as well as his close relationship with the SLUH community (which Schaefer claims is the work of Matt Sciuto, a fellow member of his class) that inspired his generosity on SLU High day.

                 “St. Louis U. High, when you look back, is the reason for any success you have, it is truly foundational,” said Schaefer. “Our 50th (reunion) has been put off because of COVID so to me (SLU High day) was a very easy way to be involved. I understood how difficult Casbah was this year, so it really had to shift to the fund-a-need and it worked tremendously well,” said Schaefer. “People understand there's a need and it’s going to be a little different but we’ll figure out a way to do it ”

                 This year’s high total is also significant because of what it means for the Jr. Bill fund, which assists families with financial aid. According to Penilla’s estimate, this year’s total donations from SLU High day represent roughly 10 percent of SLUH’s total financial aid, which is huge.

“The idea behind the Jr. Bill fund is if you’re in a position where you want to participate in some kind of co-curricular … but can’t afford that, we want to be able to help out and that’s what the Jr. Bill Fund does, it supports the excellence of the full SLUH experience,” said Penilla. “This money here is a huge piece of the puzzle for us.”

Also the same this year was the push for student involvement with the event on social media by posting photos of their first period class with the hashtag ‘sluhday’ along with responses to prompts like “What I love most about sluh is…”  For students, this gave them the opportunity to participate in a unique way.

“It was a really cool experience seeing all the SLUH students coming together to post #sluhday on their social media platform,” said junior Jared Thornberry. “It was really cool that the adults invited us to be a part of the event.” 

“The goal of St. Louis U. High Day was to celebrate 202 years of SLUH but also do it so that current and future generations of SLUH students have that same opportunity,” reflected Penilla. “Obviously this year was a monetary success but the secondary (success) was that there were so many connections that were made and relationships built.”