Currents News Staff
Across the Diocese of Brooklyn, students hit the streets and sold, sold, sold! Catholic students were selling Tablet newspapers as part of a huge fundraising effort to earn money for themselves and their schools.
After hundreds of subscriptions were sold and tens of thousands of dollars raised – the winner of the great COVID relief fundraiser can be announced. The big winner has a competitive streak and it seem to run in the family.
Third-grader Natalie Pianoforte predicted last March that she would win this year’s Tablet COVID relief fundraiser. She sold 83 subscriptions and won the Grand Prize: $3,000 dollars!
How’d she do it? One could say a little sibling rivalry may have played a part. Natalie’s big sister, Noelle, won last year by selling 48 subscriptions.
“I’m happy that she let me win,” said Natalie, “because last year she won and now I’m winning this year so now we’re tied.”
But they’re not the only winners. Each student who sold a $20-dollar subscription kept $10 dollars for themselves and their school received $5 dollars. Msgr. David Cassato, Vicar for Catholic Schools and pastor of St. Athanasius Church in Brooklyn, says it’s a great fundraiser and learning experience.
“It teaches them a lot too,” said Msgr. Cassato. “It’s not just ‘we got to raise money,’ but it teaches them how to be out there, how to give a speech, how to talk to people, how to become involved in peoples’ lives that people want to respond. And what better way to get Catholic information into peoples’ lives than through the Tablet?”