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Registration is closed for Dinner at Davidson. You can support The Davidson Trust with an online gift or attend Trust, the Play in the Duke Family Performance Hall at 8 p.m. on Saturday, April 6.

Submit a bid to the Dinner at Davidson Online Auction.

The Event

The students of Davidson College invite you to attend the fourth annual Dinner at Davidson, an evening to benefit The Davidson Trust, on Saturday, April 6, 2013. The Student Government Association's (SGA) Davidson Trust Scholarship Committee has worked to reinvent this event for the fourth annual dinner in pursuit of surpassing the $50,000 raised last year. We hope that you will join us in supporting our college's commitment to affordability and accessibility.

If your schedule or circumstance does not allow you to attend Dinner at Davidson, you can still support the SGA's efforts to raise money for The Davidson Trust by donating online or by participating in our online auction that will become available the first of March.

In addition to the student-catered dinner in the Lilly Family Gallery, the event on April 6th will feature options for a pre-dinner reception at President Quillen's home, and a student-written and directed production in Duke Family Performance Hall after dinner.

For all other considerations, including those interested in becoming involved in the organization of the event, please contact our Chair, Heidi Gruber '13, hegruber@davidson.edu.

History and Mission

Dinner at Davidson began three years ago with a small group of students in the SGA's External Affairs Committee. Led by Jordan Starck '12, the small community outreach fundraiser displayed the impact of the Trust on the student body to the larger Davidson community. In its first year, the students raised a couple thousand dollars in support of the Trust.

In their second year, through contributions to the Trust, ticket sales, and silent auction items, the students raised over $22,000. And last year, with the addition of an online auction, the students raised $50,000.

Following the second event, the students announced the creation of an expendable scholarship - the Student Government Association Davidson Trust Scholarship. In addition to increasing awareness about The Davidson Trust throughout the Davidson community and beyond, this scholarship helps bring strong leaders of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to the campus community.

In August 2011, the college welcomed its first recipient of the scholarship to campus, a member of the Class of 2015. In August 2012, the students were proud to welcome their second and third recipients to campus in the Class of 2016.

This year, the students will continue to build off the success of the last three years in designing an even more engaging Dinner at Davidson program. Although extremely proud of the work that has been done to provide scholarships to members of the Davidson College Classes of 2015 and 2016, the students now aim to work towards endowing their scholarship.

While much of the attention that we receive is for the success of our fundraising, we want it to be clear that the importance of our work extends beyond the dollars and cents that our movement drops into the Trust bucket. Our work at Davidson is about spreading the message about the importance of the Trust beyond our immediate community and engaging the student body in the movement along the way.

Who We Are

The Dinner at Davidson Planning Committee is a small corps of students who believe in access to and affordability of the institution of one's choice based solely on a passion for learning and a commitment to scholastic excellence.

We believe that by alleviating the exclusionary nature of tuition, a class forged from a multitude of unique experiences and diverse backgrounds can come together in a way impossible in any other setting.

We believe The Davidson Trust exemplifies this spirit of true academic merit, and that it has enriched our community by bringing together a diverse collection of students and allowing them to work and grow together. The product of which is reflected in the composition of the planning committee.

We believe that every single student at Davidson benefits from The Davidson Trust, even those that will never receive a penny of financial support, because the close friendships here do not conform to socioeconomic similarity. Without the Trust, every student who could still afford to attend this institution would lose close friends and the rich culture would be limited and less varied.

Thus, we feel it is our duty to give back to the Trust, in thanks for the benefits we have received from it - in grants that have brought us or our friends to this school - and also to ensure that future generations of scholars may have the same opportunities as we have been granted.

If you are interested in learning more about the committee, or in joining our efforts, please e-mail our Chair, J.D. Merrill '13, jomerrill@davidson.edu.