Drive 2024

A Holiday Message from Michael Varisco -
Project '83 - Giving Thanks All Year
 
It is humbling to address my peers, friends, and brothers from our great class as I'm keenly aware of our many accomplishments over the past forty-one years.  The evolution of our modest enterprise that was intended to support the mission of Jesuit High School - creating men of faith and men for others - has brought us to this year's Project '83 drive.  Though we have forever endowed the Jesuit Thanksgiving Drive with the gift of a turkey in each basket, we agreed to strive to make Project '83's legacy equally indelible.  The infamous words of our departed brother, Malcolm Schwarzenbach, say it best: "Our hope is to inspire others to do what we did.  We'd love to help others create Class of '83 Turkey Drive-like efforts."
 
Accepting the responsibility of inspiring others, namely the future alumni of Jesuit NOLA, our team has come to realize that "HOPING to inspire" these young men is simply not enough.  We've decided a more active approach is needed to motivate our millennial counterparts (as well as future generations) to engage in Project '83 projects.  We believe that, in order to do this, we need a regular presence at JHSNO to promote our mission of inspiring these turkey-drive-like efforts.  This presence, we believe, needs to be more than a three minute speech once a year at the end of assembly.
 
In our discussions with the school about promoting projects with the kids, we discovered that only 20% of all students ever actually deliver a Thanksgiving basket in their entire JHSNO career. Quickly, the question became, "what would it take to put every Jesuit NOLA student in a needy home to deliver a basket?"  The answer is twofold: one, a committed school administration and two, a committed benefactor.  This is where we come in.  If we raise the money, the school will make it mandatory for every 8th grader to deliver a basket to a home starting with this coming spring.  Each of the ten 8th grade homerooms will deliver four baskets during lunch, and the family they deliver to will be the same family as that class delivers to during the fall Thanksgiving Drive.  As well, our Project '83 Drive Captain will be given the opportunity to address the 8th grade class to discuss Project '83 projects - in addition to the morning assembly speech at the start of the Thanksgiving Drive. This new drive gives us the ability to promote Project '83 projects to the most impressionable group at the school and gives us four years to cultivate Class of '83 Turkey Drive-like efforts.
 
This puts us back into the saddle of doing what we do best.  This gives us another avenue to help the poor and unfortunate in our hometown.  This gives us another chance to be men of faith and men for others.
 
In the coming weeks, you guys will be contacted on call nights to participate in this new enterprise, and be humbly asked in the words of St. Ignatius Loyola:

To give and not to count the cost;
To fight and not to heed the wounds;
To toil and not to seek for rest;
To labor and not ask for any reward
Save that of knowing that we do Thy will.
 
A Proud Member of the Class of '83,
Michael Varisco



A message from the Treasurer:

Our first Call Night is tomorrow. If you would like to donate before that, go to our old website (www.classof83turkeys.com) and click on the DONATE button. We accept PayPal and Venmo donations.

If you prefer to write a check, mail it to me at:

Class of '83 Thanksgiving Drive, Inc.
306 Athania Parkway
Metairie, LA     70001

Another Proud Member of the Class of '83
Rene Alvarez