Grandparents Leading the Way, Anonymously
April 2, 2025
In support of Our Time to Soar - A Campaign for The Episcopal School of Dallas, we are pleased to announce an anonymous gift to endow and name (at some point in the future) the Head of Lower School position.
At Grandparents’ Day a couple of years ago, one couple who are ESD alumni parents and now ESD grandparents, stopped and said to me, "It’s time our family did something for ESD; we’d like to visit with you and Dave Baad.”
The thoughtfulness inspired that day in All Saints Chapel led to a gift to endow the Head of Lower School position, a wonderfully generous gift putting in place permanent funding for a key leadership position. And while our Creator is the source of all that is good, I believe that the generosity the school was on the receiving end of that day was inspired by the sum total of the ESD experiences this family has enjoyed over the course of more than twenty years.
With age comes wisdom and the chance to reflect - to reflect on our children, the schools they attended, and the impact of the people and places along the paths of their formation. This is especially so with school, and particularly so when it’s possible to enroll as a Beginner and graduate 14 years later from the same community your child joined at the age of three or four.
While at that place - in this case, ESD - you see your child(ren) grow, mature, make good decisions, choose friends wisely, and learn from less-than-ideal choices. You see how daily worship in the Episcopal tradition echoes the example you work to set and embody as parents, you celebrate their victories, and add an extra measure of love when their growing up presents its challenges.
The wheels of time keep moving, and you witness a child, now a young adult, prepared for college and beginning to thoughtfully manage their way. You cannot help but marvel, and then you realize that as well as you did as a parent, you had help along the way - family and the ability to have chosen a school and community aligned with your and your family’s values. What follows often is an outpouring of gratitude for life’s blessings, sometimes expressed in a very tangible way.
The Our Time to Soar campaign is inspired by the strategic plan ESD 2030, which aims to add significantly to the school’s endowment, all as further investment in ESD’s people and programs. The public phase of the campaign was announced on March 8th at this year’s ESDPA Auction celebrating ESD’s 50th anniversary with notice of having raised more than $36,000,000 toward the goal of $50,000,000.
We give thanks for the generosity of this ESD family leading the way.
For more information about Our Time to Soar - a Campaign for The Episcopal School of Dallas, including a complete listing of campaign leadership and the video announcing the campaign, visit www.esdallas.org/our-time-to-soar
