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The Association of Catholic Student Councils (TACSC) was founded in the Spring of 1982 at the request of the California Superintendents of Catholic Schools.
Many Catholic schools in California established student councils in the 70's. However, no real information existed for the formation of student councils at the elementary or junior high school level. These schools were without the support and training they needed for their students and student council advisors.
As time went on and new people took the role of student council advisor, the need for student government in-service programs became increasingly evident. There were requests to organize an association that would meet these needs.
Father Dennis Clark, President of the California Superintendents of Catholic Schools, knew of Grolier Educational Services' interest in Catholic schools. He contacted them, and presented a proposal which called upon GROLIER to finance the administration of a newly established California non-profit corporation to be called The Association of Catholic Student Councils.
Grolier Educational Services agreed to Father Clark's proposal. Miss Marilyn Thickett, a former principal and student council advisor, was appointed Executive Director of TACSC. She was given the job of creating a new organization - developing its programs, recruiting and training a volunteer staff. TACSC sponsored its first Student Government Days in the spring of 1982.
Since the foundation of TACSC in 1982 GROLIER, a publishing company, supported TACSC by providing the financial subsidy necessary for TACSC's administrative personnel. During the first two years TACSC had only one full time administrator and serviced only the schools in California. In the years that followed TACSC extended its services to the east coast, tripled its enrollment, increased its general mailing five fold, and had two full-time administrators working out of its office in Downey, California.
GROLIER paid the salaries of TACSC's executive director and associate director asking nothing in return, only the mention of their good name. This we gladly did. We are very grateful for their contribution and we consider their support one of God's major miracles performed on our behalf.
GROLIER was an exclusive sponsor of TACSC up until June 1989. Having been acquired by Hachette International and, due to some natural reorganization, GROLIER had to end its financial support of TACSC. Consequently, GROLIER encouraged us to invite other corporations to follow their generous lead over the years and support TACSC by becoming a sponsor.
TACSC is ready to grow. It has the potential to become an ever more viable influence on the lives of students. TACSC does make a difference.
We invite interested corporations to learn more about TACSC and discover how their participation in the life of this organization would not only be beneficial to TACSC but to their own corporations as well.
The TACSC staff, anxious about the loss of GROLIER's financial support, campaigned, worked, and prayed hard to find funds during the 1989-90 school year.
MR. EDMOND OPLER...founder of World's Finest Chocolate, recently retired , and ninety-four years old...answered the call for help. He wrote us two checks in our 1989-90 fiscal year, totaling $50,000 from the EDMOND OPLER FOUNDATION. Another miracle for TACSC!
We kept in touch with Mr. Opler until his death in August of 1995. His generous grant meant that TACSC would be able to cover all its expense for the 1989-90 school year, and could look forward to a full year of programs/services in 1990-91. In February 1991 the EDMOND OPLER FOUNDATION granted TACSC an additional $10,000.
The Raskob Foundation generously granted us $10,864 in November of 1993.
Champion Paper Company, the Margaret Brock Foundation and the Turresiburnea Club of San Francisco have also made grants to TACSC in the amounts of $500 to $3000 since 1989.
A recent foundation to contribute to TACSC's continued programming is the W. H. Hannon Foundation. This Foundation has contributed $7000 between 2000 and 2003. The largest grant to date can also be attributed to the W.H. Hannon Foundation. In September of 2003, the Hannon Foundation bestowed a grant of $70,000 to TACSC's future.
A few member schools have been generous in sponsoring local fundraisers for TACSC, and TACSC staff members (many of whom began as delegates to TACSC's Summer Leadership Programs) have done their share in financially supporting TACSC as well. Besides the many hours of donated service they give to TACSC each year, they also reach into their pockets and offer what they can. This past year they raised nearly $5000 for TACSC. Their families, parents of summer conference delegates and other TACSC benefactors contributed an additional $13,000 this past year.