The Greenfield Community College Foundation’s 2016 annual campaign, “Opening Doors to the Future,” will kick off on March 31 with campaign co-chairs Rich Fahey and Nicole Fahey at the helm. Rich Fahey is returning as co-chair, while his daughter-in-law Nicole is joining the campaign for the first time.
Greenfield Community College serves 5,500 students at five locations throughout Franklin and Hampshire Counties. The 2016 campaign has established the goal to raise $825,000 in support of students and programs at the college by May 31.
GCC President Bob Pura expressed his appreciation of the efforts of all who reinforce the message that change is created through education. “Our nation’s higher education system is increasingly replicating the great divide of our nation’s economic system. Social and economic mobility has all but disappeared — so, too the middle class,” said Pura. “But GCC, our Foundation, alumni and community have created a contradiction to that national narrative. We all help keep the doors to education and a better life open for all who are eager to work hard to achieve it.”
Pura said the college and the 2016 Annual Fund Campaign team are pleased that both Rich Fahey of Greenfield, retired advertising director for The Recorder, and GCC alum and clinician at the Franklin County House of Corrections, Nicole Fahey , are serving in the leadership role this year.
In a statement from the Foundation, Rich Fahey said that “Many believe the cost of a higher education is becoming too expensive for many families. What we are doing in support of GCC is helping keep the doors open for all who come to the college to better themselves and enter into the middle class.”
“I didn’t hesitate when I was asked to return for a third year helping out with the GCC Foundation Annual Campaign,” he added, “my wife, daughter and daughter-in-law are just a few whose lives were changed by GCC and many generations into the future will continue to benefit from our work today.”
A Turners Falls resident, Nicole (Duprey) Fahey enrolled at GCC at 16 as an early entrance student from Pioneer Valley Regional School in 2000, marking the start of a focused and accelerated educational journey from high school sophomore to recipient of a master’s degree in five years.
“My GCC experience laid the groundwork for a career that I love,” she said. “Everybody at the college — teachers and classmates — opened their doors and were so welcoming. And attending classes at GCC, with the range of ages and experiences each classmate represented, was humbling and inspiring.”
Fahey added that it was this insight that led her to a career in mental health and social work. “Witnessing their hard work to effect positive change encouraged me to direct my life’s work to helping do the same for others.”
The Faheys will head a team of almost 70 volunteers who will work to support GCC students by soliciting gifts for the campaign. The campaign team size has doubled this year, with 37 new campaigners volunteering to help raise funds over the next two months.
Rich Fahey commented on the impact the campaign has on the college’s ability to change lives for the better, noting that “if everyone in our communities thought about how GCC has directly or indirectly enhanced their life or that of a family member or friend, and made a gift to the GCC Foundation Annual Fund Campaign in appreciation, GCC’s role in ensuring a positive future for generations to come would be assured.”
For more information about the foundation and supporting the annual campaign, go to www.gcc.mass.edu/give or contact Regina Curtis, executive director of Resource Development & GCC Foundation, at 413-775-1600.