One can hardly talk about Mount Carmel without referring to tradition -- long felt to be the cornerstone of Caravan success in the classroom, on the field, and as a community. The Caravan Walk has been a stronghold of a tradition for more than four decades -- evolving in important ways, while retaining the values long-considered integral to engaging our students as Men of Carmel.

The Caravan Walk creates a unique opportunity for collaboration among all members of the school community. This year, the Advancement, Student Engagement, and Marketing teams joined to provide competitions and incentives that would push our students toward Studium and personal goals while also offering a sense of fun with great prizes such as Bose, Beats, and Samsung devices along with concert tickets, cash, and gift cards. The top fundraisers in the freshman through junior classes will enjoy premium parking and cafeteria benefits as well as the opportunity to be an administrator for the day in the upcoming school year.

With the stunning backdrop of Lake Michigan as the route, the entire building emptied out on April 27th and hit the pavement in celebration of the most recent Walkathon campaign. This year we challenged our students to reach out to neighbors, relatives, and community members to help support their individual Walk efforts. The use of crowdfunding software made it easier for students to reach outside of their immediate family, alleviating some of the burdens for parent support.

Class of 2021 member Dustin Pettis was one such creative guy. Dustin raised a total of $135 ($5 above his individual goal) through the generosity of thirteen separate donors. When asked how he approached his donors, Dustin said: “I just asked them to help my school.” And so they did.

Dustin represents just one of the many success stories among our young Men of Carmel. In our third consecutive year of employing a crowdfunding program, the Mount Carmel community came together in a record-breaking way to gross $90,118 with more than 1,600 donors! Our student body is responsible for using social media to drive this campaign well beyond the goal of $77,000 -- our most ambitious and successful Walkathon yet. When all is said and done, the efforts of this year’s participants will benefit all of our students in the coming year. The Walkathon is just one way we are able to keep tuition increases to a minimum -- something we can all appreciate.

Sincere thanks to all of our parents, alumni, and other benefactors for making this year such a success and for inspiring our students to walk with pride in the Caravan tradition.