On Friday, April 19, the Imperial Room at the Bridgewater Manor was filled with 190 guests including parents, grandparents, alumni, friends, and staff members who enjoyed an evening of wonderful fellowship. We celebrated all the great things God is doing at TCS and helped raise funds for some of our initiatives which are enabling us to shape the next generation for Christ.
Guests arrived to beautiful music being played on the piano by one of our eighth-grade international students, Yiran Xie. Our high school student ambassadors escorted guests to their tables and shared a testimony about their experience at Timothy Christian School and how it has prepared them for college.
Lisa Dyer, Director of Advancement, introduced the theme: Shaping the next generation for Christ and shared some of this school year’s highlights.
“Isaiah 64:8 says, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” God the Father is the Potter who made each one of us & each one of our children. He has designed each one of us to be a unique child of God with special gifts and talents that He wants us to use for His glory. At Timothy, the faculty, staff, and coaches are teaching, mentoring, and discipling our students to become all who God has created them to be! God tells us to teach our children in the way they should go and when they’re old they will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6) At Timothy Christian School we are partnering faithfully with parents to do just that!”
Highlights included: being in our third consecutive year of enrollment growth, strong academics with a gifted and talented program added in upper elementary, increased AP and dual enrollment courses and the STEM Scholars program in its second year, and our healthy financial report showing our fourth straight year ‘in the black!’”
Head of School, Dr. Smock spoke about three initiatives: Furnishing our classrooms with new desks and chairs, fencing around the athletic fields, and Scholarship Angels.
Scholarship Angels are people who have a heart for helping a child whose family cannot afford the tuition without the help of financial assistance. Out of our 467 students, 140 need some level of financial assistance. We are currently giving $450,000 in financial aid. The average amount awarded to a student is $3,400. Any amount a Scholarship Angel gives will go toward our tuition assistance that will aid one of more children to receive a Christ-centered education at TCS.
An alumnus, Shihab Joseph (class of 2017) shared his testimony about why he chose to be a Scholarship Angel. Shihab received his BS in Biology focused on Health Sciences with a minor in Business from Nova Southeastern University and has a MS in Health Informatics from Rutgers. He is currently working as a healthcare consultant at Oracle. Click here to see his testimony.
Please visit our Scholarship Angel page to learn more about who some of our Scholarship Angels are and read testimonies from some of our recipients of this financial assistance.
Some of our students and parents shared ‘Why they love TCS’ via video. Click here to view.
A highlight of the evening was the Live Art. TCS senior, Willow Portee and art teacher, Derwin Sierra created charcoal drawings on canvas while freshman, Jayson Dong played the violin alongside band teacher, Mrs. LeeAnna Colonnello on the piano playing and singing The Potter’s Hand by Hillsong Worship. As one of our parents shared, “The music and visual art was so beautiful to hear and watch!”
Dr. Smock auctioned the live art, as well as two weekend getaways, one to the Mayhurst Estate and one to the Badillo Beach House. Guests bid silently on our highly sought after Elementary ‘Student Principal for a Day,’ MS/HS ‘Student Principal for a Day,’ Lunch with Dr. Smock, and our Premiere HS Parking Spot! Congratulations to all our winners!
We closed out the evening with our Keynote speaker, Jeff Keaton, founder and CEO of Renewanation, who spoke powerfully about the power and importance of Christian education. Jeff shared, “Truth is like a lion, let it out and it will devour falsehood,” along with many great statistics and personal stories to illustrate why there is a great need to give every child a biblical worldview. Many guests commented about how much they loved Jeff’s talk. We hope to be able to bring Jeff back to TCS sometime to speak with our students.
Each guest took home a blue or gold pinch pot which was hand-made by our MS and HS ceramic students along with art teacher, Derwin Sierra and some wonderful parent and grandparent volunteers. We hope that these pinch pots, which were each individually shaped will remind everyone that the ministry of Timothy Christian School is shaping the next generation for Christ!
The Spring Banquet raised over $65,000. We are so grateful to all our sponsors, donors, TCS staff, parents, student volunteers, and the Bridgewater Manor staff who helped make this evening possible!
