The Alumni Association Donation Drive

In January 2010, the alumni community of JFKS was presented with a donation drive idea developed at a meeting by representatives of the Alumni Association and members of the 50th anniversary committee.

"Creating Community" — being the chosen motto for the 50th anniversary — caused the wish to visualize a sense of community feeling between the generations of students who already have graduated from JFKS and those who are currently still working towards this goal, during this very special year in our school’s history. A special edition 50th anniversary T-shirt was to be designed and to be handed out as a present from the alumni community to the current student body in order to be worn by them for the wide-angle picture that is traditionally taken during special anniversary years. Thus, not only the current students, but also the alumni would have been part of the picture and would have connected the past with the present, visualizing the community feeling.

A design contest among the students for the 50th anniversary logo was won by Lucas Pretty, a 7th grade student. A team of professional designers volunteered their work creating items for the 50th anniversary and among those the alumni special edition T-shirt. The photographer had requested a dark colored T-shirt however and was not convinced that this idea would work out well technically. The 1700 T-shirts should have been ordered by May 2010, but unfortunately the alumni community had not collected enough money at that point to purchase this quantity of T-shirts. After a vivid discussion, it was decided to postpone the distribution of the T-shirt in order to gain more time for collecting donations.

The new date was set: October 1st 2010, which is the day for the official 50th anniversary ceremony to take place.

This change of plan enabled the design team to create a new design, which also lowered the costs for the T-shirt production. The special edition T-shirt is therefore now white with a Kennedy-blue imprint of the 50th logo and the words "Alumni Donation. Design by Lucas Pretty."

By July 2010, the sum needed to order these T-shirts was donated by the generous members of the alumni community, who donated over 3800.- €.

We would like to thank each and everyone who made it possible to let this idea of creating a community feeling between the current students and the alumni community, between the past and the present, come to life. This being hopefully the start for a future committed connection between our two communities. This commitment should basically not be just of a financial nature, but rather one of sharing experience, ideas, and extending a helping hand for the school's students and their future needs.