The 2026 Founder’s Day for Scholars was the most successful yet thanks to more than 800 donors who gave $930,000 for financial aid. By pairing an Alumni Giving Day challenge with Founder’s Day for Scholars, the number of alumni donors increased by 57 percent. Nearly 350 alumni made gifts to the challenge.

“Financial aid is just so important to me because I had that opportunity. Remembering what my parents did for me and what other people did for me, it's my turn to give back to the next generation,” says Hurley Doddy ’81, P ’17, ’19.

Founder’s Day for Scholars has become an especially meaningful part of the School’s Founder’s Day celebration, a festive time when we honor our school’s visionary founder Thomas Sidwell. As we celebrate our community and our values it’s the perfect time to support Sidwell Friends’ financial aid program, one of the most generous in the Washington, DC area.

“We want to create an environment at Sidwell Friends that is steeped in honest intellectual exchange and a community of caring at the same time,” says Assistant Head of School for Enrollment and Financial Aid Frankie Brown P ‘22. “If there’s more representation from all walks of life experiencing it together, it’s less of a bubble. It strengthens us if all our students are able to talk about where they’re from with pride and know that they’re here because they belong here. We don’t want finances to get in the way of what every student brings to this community.”

Yoshi Maisami P ’33, ’35, a current parent and active volunteer, appreciates that his children’s friends are from all over the world. “You want your kids to be able to operate and adapt in any environment. And so, you want the campus to reflect what society and the world represents. We have that at Sidwell Friends. In part, because of financial aid. One in four families receive aid. Everyone’s lives are enriched by that. It’s core to this amazing place that we call home.”

The many volunteers who advocated for the Founder’s Day for Scholars effort made all the difference—volunteers like Camille Fesche P ’36, who believes ongoing parental support is key to a school’s success. In all, more than 330 current parents contributed to Founder’s Day for Scholars.“Parent support like that means Sidwell Friends is able to provide the highest quality learning experience now and will be well prepared for the future,” says Fesche. “When I speak to parents about giving, I highlight that it’s not the amount that matters. Rather it’s about a gift that’s meaningful to the family.”

Founder’s Day for Scholars always includes a special evening celebration of its own. This year, a highlight of the event was current student Manka M’mari ’27 reading her poem “I See Trees,” which she wrote especially for the occasion. 

When asked what inspired her, she says, “I wanted to write a poem that would honor the significance of the occasion and still feel genuine. On Founder’s Day we honor the past and focus on how we as a community can continue to support one another through the present and future. My school community has been pivotal in my educational journey and as I am about to enter my senior year of high school, I like to think of my poem as a thank you. A thank you to all the trees before me and alongside me and a calling to our whole school community to support and grow with one another.”

View Manka's reading of the poem in its entirety below:

To learn more about Founder’s Day for Scholars and Alumni Giving Day, contact Dana Saab, director of annual giving, at saabd@sidwell.edu.