A few months after Remy and Skip bought their remodeled home around the corner from Chester Arthur School, they read an opinion piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer about two Point Breeze residents who returned their tax rebates to the city to support under-resourced public schools.
Remy emailed the article to Skip. The couple was struck by how lost tax dollars affect schools and wondered what they could do about that. “We thought about the best way we could give back to our new community,” Skip said.
And so it was decided: They would use their own tax rebates to make a unique donation to Friends of Chester Arthur, the nonprofit that fundraises and supports their neighborhood school. Remy sent a message through the FoCA website, saying she was inspired by this article and interested in supporting the organization. FoCA co-president Leigh Botwinik replied that very night. Leigh later got together with Skip and Remy to talk about FoCA and the various academic and extracurricular programs it funds at the school.
The Stiles went all in, making a donation based on the combined tax abatements for two homes they own in the neighborhood.
“This represents a way of thinking about donating to FoCA that we haven't seen before, and I think it’s indicative of the extent which FoCA has become woven into this community," Leigh said. "We are so grateful to Skip and Remy for this transformational gift.”
After donating, the Stiles took a tour of the school with Dr. Mary Libby, Arthur's first-year principal. “It was great to see the kids interact with her,” Remy said. “Everyone who passed by was high-fiving her.”
They got to check in on a Spanish class (the Bilingual Butterflies program is funded by FoCA supporters), and they learned about the educational aspects of the schoolyard (which FoCA donors created out of blacktop several years ago).
They also watched students working with iReady, a computer program that provides personalized, targeted instruction in reading and math. It is hugely popular with students and has already resulted in improvements in test scores. Dr. Libby had been hoping to make it available to all students; the Stiles' gift has enabled FoCA to fulfill that wish.
Shannon Braden, FoCA co-president, toured the school with the Stiles. "Individual giving is an increasingly critical component of the fundraising that FoCA does, and so we’re thrilled that this gift will help us achieve our goal of raising $42,500 this year in individual gifts to support programs like iReady,” she said.
Remy and Skip are products of public schools (they met running track at Haddonfield Memorial High School in South Jersey). Their kids — Michaela, their newborn daughter, and Levi, their 2-year-old son — will one day be students at Chester Arthur.
“That’s part of what’s special about the neighborhood you live in — the public school is representative of your community,” Remy said. “We want our kids to be part of the community where we’re living. And it’s important that public schools have the support.”