PUBLISHED:May 19, 2010

Thank-a-Thon connects students with donors

Twenty eight students made approximately 450 phone calls to donors on the evenings of May 6 and May 11 as part of the Duke Law Thank-a-Thon, an event designed to demonstrate appreciation to members of the Law School community while fostering connections between alumni and current students.

“My attendance at Duke Law School was made possible by a gift from a donor,” Raemond Parrot ’11 says. “Knowing how much it meant to me as well as other students, it seemed really important to say thank you.”

View the Thank-a-Thon photo gallery

Calls were made from the Law School between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. each night to donors throughout the country who made Leadership gifts of $1,000 or more to the Law School, as well as to any donors who contributed to the clinical program.

Members of the alumni and development staff recruited six student leaders, who then recruited 22 additional volunteers to the effort. (See the full volunteer list below.)

“You can actually see the effect the donors’ gifts have on the Law School,” Mark Irvine ’12 says. “These are wonderful places. We do appreciate it when we think about it. All of this stuff must come from somewhere.”

Leslie Mahaffey T’06, L’11 knows what it feels like to receive a thank you phone call based on her own philanthropy and was happy to be on the other end of the phone this time.

“My husband and I are giving to the undergraduate program. Someone called me, and it was so sweet,” Mahaffey says. “I loved receiving that phone call, and getting to do it as a Law School student was pretty cool.”

“Coming back to Duke to attend law school was made possible by gifts from the alumni,” she adds. “It’s just amazing, and I’m glad to say thank you.”

2010 Thank-a-Thon Volunteers
(Team captains in italics)

Amelia Ashton
Hannah Banks
Rachel Berkowitz
Shine Chen
Vivian Chow
Mark Coleman
Lee Davis
Tania Faransso
Jennifer Feistritzer
James Gillenwater
Carolyn Gillespie
Karl Goodman
James Harlow
Mark Irvine
Merlyne Jean-Louis
Stephanie Lam
Leslie Mahaffey
Todd Miller
Ilit Ostrovitch-Levi
Raemond Parrott
Rocio Perez
Karen Porter
Phil Rubin
Chris Suedekum
Jennifer Swearingen
James Van Strander
Jane Xia
Justin Yedor