Megan's Letter

To my friends, family, and community,

I have been heavily involved in the Roosevelt High School Alumni Association for many years and currently serve as a board member. I've found the volunteer work to be deeply fulfilling, connecting me with a community of people who see life the same way I do, and offering a chance to make an impact for students in a way I wish could have been done for me as a teen.

Our work is made possible through volunteer time and community support. Every dollar we spend comes from people who want to give back, and the many hours our volunteers contribute each month are driven by a shared desire to make a difference. I'll be up-front here: this is a request for financial support. I'm asking my community to support the work my fellow volunteers and I have been doing, and help us continue this impactful work.

I want to take a moment to share how this work connects to me personally, and how supporting the Alumni Association directly impacts the work I’m involved in.

I’m a member of the Executive Committee that awards grants to student groups, and I’m heavily involved with the financial decisions in the process. These grants are funds given to groups in need of money when unexpected costs come up, funding falls short, or especially needy students might miss an opportunity. This is where the majority of our funds go, and ultimately is the most impactful area of our work. I want to talk about several recent examples of how these small grants have made a big difference.

At the end of the '24-'25 school year, the yearbook committee was hit with a significant increase in printing costs compared to what they were quoted at the start of the school year. We could only help with an extra $600, and several local groups came together to help get these kids over the finish line. The books still cost students nearly $75, and will cost even more this year. The '24-'25 book was absolutely gorgeous, and is an important keepsake students should have access to - I certainly value my own books. I wish we could help subsidize the cost for seniors or help the yearbook committee accomplish more fundraising, but all of this requires a larger budget.

In spring 2025, Girls Golf (which is only in its second year) quadrupled in size and didn't have the budget to support this larger team, so we bought them new polos and skirts with grant funds. If we had more funding we could have bought them shoes and equipment too. Women's sports especially deserve this extra support and I’ve been a big advocate of funding these groups whenever possible - even small grants completely change the trajectory of a team’s season.

We recently gave a grant to a student who studied abroad for a month over the summer. They have faced homelessness and instability most of their life, and this was an incredible opportunity for them. They got a scholarship that covered the actual cost of the program, and only had to purchase their flight (which was $$$) and transportation. They worked hard to fundraise for the cost in a very short period of time, and we gave them about $600 to cover the remaining. I wish we could have covered the full flight cost immediately, because they absolutely deserved it.

These are just a couple examples from early 2025, and don't even touch on our support for theatre, tennis, baseball, dance, senior celebrations, student leadership, and more during the same time period. As an outside organization, we are able to come in and make a real difference for these student groups, and I hope through the support of our community we can continue to increase our funding capabilities.

Thinking back on my time as a student, I just imagine how even these small grants could have made a difference for my classmates. How many more of my fellow Thespians could have gone to the state conference or even the national one? As a student government, could we have put on more exciting pep assemblies, something students actually wanted to go to? Could we have started the speech and debate team several of us wanted but the school had no funding to support? I consider these examples, and realize, I’ve been part of helping support all of these programs recently. In 2025 we helped the theatre cross their fundraising goal for the festival in Indiana. Our funding to the student council helped them put on an awesome Homecoming pep rally the last two years. We’ve supported the speech and debate team as they head to tournaments numerous times since they formed just a few years ago.

I like to think 15-year-old Megan would be happy to see all of this work. But I also know she’d probably have a list of other student groups needing more help and would be asking how we can get them more funding too.

I also help lead our Scholarship Committee, and currently we offer five $1,000 awards to graduating seniors. In the future we want to increase both the value of these scholarships and the number of students awarded. We all know the cost of college. Right now we give students these awards and tell them to buy their dorm supplies or an extra plane ticket home freshman year, or some other small potatoes expense. I want us to be able to offer a more impactful scholarship to more students. Even just a slightly larger award, to a few more students, makes a major difference to each year’s graduating class.

I think about my own college education, and about the pressure of senior year of high school, knowing the schools I was interested in and their tuition costs alone. I spent so many hours filling out scholarship applications and every rejection email (or worse, no notification at all) hurt more than the last.

College-bound students need scholarship opportunities where the pool is smaller, where the reviewers actually have time to read applications in full, and where those reviewers come from their own community and understand their story. It gives students a chance that is much harder in larger competitions.

An area of our work that we have just recently expanded to in the last few years revolves around supporting the school’s social workers and students in need. In 2023, we wanted to do a coat drive going into winter, but after talking with staff we learned that there is a constant extreme need for more basics: underwear and socks. If a kid doesn’t have a coat, they may be cold on their walk to school, but that is practically fashionable anyway. If a kid doesn’t have underwear that is clean or fits them, they aren’t coming to school at all. That month we collected donations amounting to several hundred packs of undergarments - within a month they had all been distributed to kids who needed them. I just imagine a time when we can keep that closet stocked, and all those kids can just have one less thing to worry about.

It's a similar story with the snack pantry for students. Kids who need extra food between school provided meals can visit the social workers and get an extra snack if there are any available. Hungry kids are less likely to pay attention in class and succeed, or even go to class at all. A box of mini beef jerky packs could keep a whole biology class focused and learning, no matter the other uncertainties they may be facing in their life outside of school. It really is such a simple equation.

Additional funding can help us keep these resources stocked and help kids keep coming to school.

As part of our Communications Committee, I handle our social media, website, newsletters, and other community-oriented outreach. I find myself constantly battling a reputation around the school that has long since held any value, and it leaves me thinking about our past, back to my time as a student and before. When a current student gets to achieve something because opportunities arose and allowed them to flourish, I can’t help but wonder, how many other students could have done the same given the funding and opportunity? 20 years ago when this was a “bad school”, how many students just needed support and the space to run on the track/perform on a stage/learn a new language, etc? We can’t go back in time, but we can do our best to make change in the future.

There is a lot that I, and the Alumni Association, can’t do. We can’t be in the classrooms, but we can do a little bit to help make sure kids are getting what they need to help them succeed in their classes. Whether that is stocking the food pantry, or giving them a reason to come to class even if it is just so they can go to band practice after school, every little bit makes a difference.

I ask for your help. Help me, and the Roosevelt High School Alumni Association, continue to make a difference. Please consider donating to support our work, and help us support the Roughriders of today.

Megan Hall
Class of 2013
Communications Chair