(CHESTERTOWN, MD) – Radcliffe Creek School is pleased to announce that it has received a
generous $75,000 gift from Barbara Thomas and family members of her deceased brother,
John Lane. The gift was used to help students who might otherwise have not been able to
attend Radcliffe Creek School and as seed money to generate additional donations and
revenue to help supplement the 2018-2019 operating budget, including a challenge to Radcliffe
Creek’s donors to double the donation for the school’s Annual Fund.
“The gift from Barbara Thomas and the Lane Family will have an immediate impact on Radcliffe
families as it enabled several families to send their children for the 2018-2019 school year,” said
Radcliffe Creek’s Head of School, Meg Bamford, who began the position on July 1. “The ability
to tell these families that their children would be able to come because of this gift was truly an
honor. Our desire is to help as many students as we can. However, our difficulty lies in providing
a small student to teacher ratio to provide targeted instruction and our families’ ability to pay our
tuition. Often, parents come to Radcliffe not because they intended to enroll their children in
private school, but because they are looking for an environment that can celebrate their child’s
strengths while actively remediating their areas of weakness. Radcliffe embraces the whole
child. Radcliffe Creek School believes that everyone learns differently and can thrive with
structured, multisensory, personalized programming. Students with learning disabilities, apraxia,
high functioning autism, and ADHD continue to blossom in this setting alongside their peers who
do not have a disability.”
Radcliffe Creek School continues to thrive and the need for the program is greater now than
ever before, which is why the support of Barbara Thomas and the Lane Family is so vital. For
the 2018-2019 school year alone, the school committed more than $400,000 in financial aid to
its 84 kindergarten through eighth grade students.
“Over the last three years, and guided by our Strategic Plan, Radcliffe Creek School has
focused on developing relationships toward advancing financial aid for Radcliffe students, which
remains a critical need for the school. Currently, more than 60 percent of the students at
Radcliffe Creek receive financial aid and the school is unable to meet the demands from many
other families seeking to address their child’s needs,” said Radcliffe’s Board President, Susan
Newton-Rhodes. “Financial resources are critical to reaching these children and families which
require specialized support for their learning differences. This very generous and timely gift to
Radcliffe will enable the school to offer opportunities to many families to attend this special
school. We are deeply grateful to their generosity and acknowledge their understanding of the
needs of these children to receive the type of support that Radcliffe offers.”
-more“
My wife Gay and I were motivated to make this gift because of Barbara Thomas (my aunt) and
John Lane (my late father and her brother). They both cared greatly about education and
believed that a good education for someone was a benefit for everyone. Along with my three
siblings, Bob, Judy, and Ginger, and their spouses, we share this belief,” said Doug Lane.
Radcliffe Creek School is an independent day school with the mission of empowering children in
a dynamic environment that celebrates unique learning. At the heart of The Radcliffe Way is the
notion of personalized learning in a caring community that sets high expectations, but provides
support for all students to excel. For more information about Radcliffe Creek or Little Creek, the
school’s preschool, which includes programs for children from infancy through pre-kindergarten,
please call 410-778-8150 or visit www.radcliffecreekschool.org.