First published in the June 2 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
Photos courtesy La Cañada Preparatory
After a two-year hiatus, The Learning Castle and La Cañada Preparatory recently held their 13th annual Diamond Donor Dinner at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale.
Every year, the dinner and ceremony are attended by the schools’ major donors and celebrates the fiscal goals of the campaign and 100% parent participation. This year’s dinner also recognized faculty and staff who have worked at the schools for 10 or more years, some as long as 28 years.
Development Director Aggie Malolepszy opened the evening and talked about the total amount raised for the year. She also recounted the 15-year history of the fundraising campaign and highlighted the varying and momentous ways the schools and students have benefitted from the school’s fund over the years.
“I knew my future children would attend this school,” Malolepszy said to the attendees. “I knew it, because there is no other place like it.”
Justin Whalin, assistant director, then revisited the toughest days of the global pandemic and the herculean efforts required to navigate and thrive during such times.
“Our faculty and staff were stellar,” Whalin said. “When the pandemic shut everything down, they rolled up their sleeves and got to work building a distance-learning program from the ground floor, and one of the very best around, if I may be so bold.”
Whalin went on to thank members of the entire school community for their support of the schools’ relentless drive to return students to campus.
The Learning Castle acquired the necessary waivers from the Department of Health to bring transitional kindergarten through 4th-grade students back to in-person learning in early September 2020, a full year before most schools in Los Angeles County.
