(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.