This year’s Saint Mary’s Benefit Dance raised $7,200 to gift to this year’s benefit recipient, Curt Coshenet. Curt, the Chartwells director of dining services, received a double lung transplant on March 27, 2021, after being diagnosed in 2019 with pulmonary fibrosis. Thankfully, about a year after his transplant, he is doing well and gaining endurance every day. Curt has always been so generous to Saint Mary’s students and the rest of the community, and we are thankful for the opportunity to be able to return his generosity! Thank you all who contributed to success of the Saint Mary’s Benefit Dance, especially our student committee and their leaders: Caroline Cummings, Catherine “Catie” Schiltz, and faculty advisor Megan Girtman.
The Saint Mary’s Benefit, although continuing the tradition with a new name, will forever honor the event’s first recipient, Taylor Richmond, son of longtime Saint Mary’s employee, Niki Richmond. Taylor was born with the degenerative genetic disease ataxia telangiectasia, and students planned the first fundraiser in 2001 to fulfill his dreams of visiting Disney World. A meaningful tradition to the Saint Mary’s community, the dance has been held annually, only paused in 2021 because of the pandemic.
