Greenwich Election Day bake sales raise $12,000 for DC trip fund

Bake sales at Greenwich polling places on Nov. 3 raised approximately $12,000 for the 8th Grade DC Trip Scholarship Fund, first reported by Greenwich Free Press.

The fund needs $73,000 this year to send 95 scholarship-eligible students from Central, Eastern and Western Middle Schools to Washington, D.C. The buses leave in May.

Students and parents from all three schools worked the tables. Eastern Middle School families set up at Riverside, Old Greenwich and North Mianus Schools. Central and Western Middle School families ran sales at their own polling sites. Students stood out front with handmade signs, offering homemade treats, coffee and snacks to voters.

"The cookies were great, but the kids were the reason people stopped," said Michelle O'Donnell, who co-chairs the Eastern Middle School effort with Mary Ann Ranalli.

O'Donnell said voters saw middle schoolers working for their classmates and decided to give, according to Greenwich Free Press.

The trip has been a Greenwich Public Schools tradition for more than 40 years. Before the pandemic, students whose families could not afford the trip stayed behind at school. When the trip returned in 2023, parents, principals and teachers from all three middle schools created the scholarship fund with the Greenwich Alliance for Education (GAE) as fiscal sponsor. The fund operates under one rule, according to Greenwich Free Press: if any student cannot go, no school goes. Since 2023, the fund has helped more than 225 students make the trip.

In March 2024, Greenwich United Way issued a $30,000-plus grant to the fund. That grant covered 80 qualifying students that year, when the trip cost about $809 per student before food and extras. David Rabin, CEO of Greenwich United Way, said at the time that the organization is "focused on narrowing the achievement and opportunity gap among Greenwich students."

This year's need is the largest the fund has faced. The trip now costs about $1,000 per student, and 95 students have applied for full or partial scholarships.

Jenny Dutile, committee chair of the fund, called the $12,000 "an incredible start" but said the fund has a long way to go. The fund must raise the remaining balance before the May departure.