Volunteers of the Year: Caroline Daifotis and Ron Groves

During the recognition ceremony, Trustee and former president of the Parent Council, Lynn Quinn, introduced current parent and former Trustee, Caroline Daifotis. Lynn recognized the incredible time Caroline has volunteered for Hopkins, through her work with the Parent Council, playing a key role in the annual auction as well as countless hours spent on the Parent Council newsletter. (Read Lynn's introduction of Caroline below). To honor Caroline and her commitment to the school, Lynn presented the book, Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society by Robert Herbert, which will live in the Calarco Library, bearing a nameplate honoring Caroline.

Following Caroline's acceptance, Trustee and parent Dick Ferguson '63 HGS introduced his friend and classmate, Ron Groves '63 HGS. Dick expressed his own gratitude, as well as that of the School's, to Ron for his dedication to his fellow classmates and his many years of service given in work with the Alumni/ae Association Board and annual Golf Tournament. (Read Dick's introduction of Ron below.) Dick announced that in honor of Ron, An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World Shaped Early North America by Michael Wigen, would be donated in his name to the Calarco Library.

Congratulations and many thanks to Caroline and Ron, for all they have done for Hopkins!

Lynn Quinn's introduction of Caroline Daifotis:
Today is another wonderful day on this beautiful hill, and the school year is full of them.  But annual Homecoming, most especially on a perfect New England fall day, draws generations of Hopkins students and alumni, faculty and staff, along with their families, together to celebrate our magnificent school by reconnecting with one another. 

At this point in the day’s festivities we come together to recognize the very special people whose volunteer contributions have served Hopkins so well, and looking around there are many here, including past honorees.  But it is my distinct privilege to help recognize the outstanding contributions of Caroline Daifoitis.  I speak on behalf of the Hopkins Parent Council, but I also speak personally as one of the many school parents, particularly from Fairfield County, that Caroline’s friendly and organized outreach has positively impacted.

Caroline and her husband Nick Daifotis came to Hopkins from New Canaan in 2005, when daughter Natalie, now a Junior at Pomona, started 7th grade.  In succession, daughters Melanie, a new Freshman at Claremont McKenna, and then Valerie, now a Hopkins Junior, followed.   

Caroline quickly became involved in the Hopkins Parent Council, and within two years she was chairing the Auction, and she has been an absolute of mainstay of this all-important annual friend- and fund-raising event ever since, which contributes back significant funds to the school each year.

In this, and in everything Caroline does, she brings an all too rare combination of efficient productivity and warm humanity.  Caroline has not only spearheaded the computer systems we use to track auction ticketing and proceeds, as well as produce the catalogue and then, after so many volunteers tend to fall away as the school year winds down, she sees that we get through all the necessary back-end paperwork.  

But Caroline is also our Number One volunteer recruiter.  Earlier this month, as Carole Quental chaired theParent Council's kick-off fall board meeting, so many of us around the table specifically attributed our school involvement to Caroline!  

As a poignant side note, I think many of us here today will remember Melissa Dobyn, herself a wonderful volunteer from New Canaan, who lost her brave battle with cancer while her two children were students here. Caroline not only stepped in and helped cover Melissa’s role as a Fundraising VP on the Parent Council-- that means Co-Auction Chair-- here in New Haven, but back on the home front Caroline made sure that we were allgood and helpful neighbors to the Melissa and her family.  
   
In addition to organizing the annual "Celebrate Hopkins" Auction, Caroline has served as a Grade Rep, a Parent Fund Volunteer, chair of the Nominating Committee, and is the long-time producer and editor of the Parent Council’s e-newsletter, which issue after issue is an informative and attractive publication for all the Hopkins community.

For the past two years Caroline has been the Parent Representative to the Hopkins Board of Trustees, where she served on both the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the Development Committee.  Dick Ferguson, who you will hear from in just a bit, is chair of the Trustee Development Committee, and he describes Caroline as "smart and insightful and decisive". All true!

This year, after a stint on the Senior Parent Fund last year, Caroline and Nick Daifotis are joining Donna and Craig Steinberg as co-chairs of the Hopkins Parent Fund, which each year reaches out to every school family to raise much needed funds for current school use.

But aside from all these “official” volunteer roles, over the years Caroline has worked diligently behind the scenesto overcome the transportation challenges that many Hopkins families face. In this, she has annually compiled and disseminated car pool information, on an color-coded excel spread sheet tour de force, an exit by exit run down on both the Merritt and I-95!  But she also has worked with school administration and the beloved B and BTransportation Company to bring more and more bus service further and further south, which has opened up the Hopkins community to increasing numbers of talented and motivated secondary school students.

 As John Roberts describes: "transportation can be very challenging for families from Fairfield County, especially those with young children.  Caroline not only created carpooling systems that proved invaluable for busy families, but put a smiling, warm and welcoming face on the "system" that calmed and reassured countless nervous parents over these past many years.  And the motivation for all her "behind the scenes" hard work was nothing less than wanting to make the Hopkins experience a happy and successful one for each and every child and family.  She is a remarkably generous and smart and determined FOH (friend of Hopkins!)."

So that leads us to Caroline the friend, the person, the wife and the mom—while Caroline was busy at Hopkins, so were her and Nick’s daughters—in sports and in the arts, on publications and in student government, and Caroline supported all these endeavors.  A few years back Caroline decided to start working-- a "real" job-- part time, and as of this year, Pear Tree Point School has been fortunate to have Caroline on staff as their full-time webmaster and marketing and events guru.  Of course, while there, Caroline also steers promising families our way here in New Haven—continuing her outreach on behalf of Hopkins School.
 
Many times Caroline and Nick have opened their home to Hopkins, for New Student events, and other parent functions, and if you have been lucky enough to visit their beautiful house and gardens, you know that know Caroline is an accomplished cook and that she and Nick know so much about fine wine.  But you will also know that they keep tropical fish and exotic birds!

To the Daifotis family, thank you for being part of our Hopkins community, and thank you for sharing your wonderful wife and mom with us.  Those of you who have worked with Caroline know that I have barely touched on her many tremendous qualities — which all exist in amazing balance.  Caroline is energetic but steady, practical but compassionate.  She has backstopped countless Parent Council projects, as well as independent initiatives that have benefitted many school families, and all have improved and broadened our terrific school community.

As there are many history buffs here, I will close by saying that BC – Before Caroline – projects from auction record keeping to long distance transportation had literally a long way to go.  But, now, AD, After Daifoitis, so many school systems in communication and fundraising, access and logistics, have been thoughtfully improved.  And I but one of the many, grateful to have been cheerfully encouraged by a "certain someone" – to join this talented and devoted community of Hopkins school volunteers in the CE – not the Common Era – but the Caroline Era.


Dick Ferguson's introduction of Ron Groves:

At the movie theaters they used to have double features, and typically there was one good movie and then one that was not so good.  But today we have two academy award winners.  It’s great to be here.  I have had the great pleasure of working with Caroline, and Ron is a life-long friend.  It’s great to be on a double bill tonight.  It is a real honor for me, to speak on behalf of someone who is very involved in the school but more importantly as a member of the class of 1963, who just celebrated his 50th reunion.  The success of that reunion was due to the hard work, and actually, the love of Ron Groves.  He is an amazing guy and there are many of his fellow classmates who are here today.  I know Fred Martz is out there somewhere, John Gordon, Chuck Moakley and Gordy Allen, who by the way, was the Hopkins quarterback in 1963.  

As Barbara has already mentioned, he has put in wonderful service on the Alumni/ae Association Board, something that he did for over 8 years.  He continues to be the secretary of our class and has done that for over 15 years.  This is actually a really good job, because you get to call people all of the time and its not such a good job because you have to badger them to get a little ink.  When it comes to ink – you may not know this - but when it comes to ink, Ron is a spectacular sports writer.  When we were at Hopkins, he was often late for assembly  (which did not endear him to Mr. Sherk) because he was down at the New Haven Register, filing stories.   He was the Sports Editor of the Razor, and very much the heart and soul of that newspaper when I was here.  

He is an amazingly effective and enthusiastic volunteer at Hopkins phone-athons – something he has done for over thirty years.  I have sat next to him for many of those phone-athons, and it’s just amazing to listen to him.  People love to get a call from Ron.  I’ll often dial numbers and say “Frank, it’s Dick Ferguson calling and I’d like to talk to you about the Annual Fund.”  They would say, “Is Ron there?  Can I speak to him?”

One of the things that Ron is best known for and one of the things that has had an incredible impact on Hopkins is the Hopkins Golf Tournament.  Organized some 13 years ago, this golf tournament, which is run by the Alumni/ae  Association, has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Hopkins Endowment and it provides a scholarship for a worthy kid to go to this school.  

I think you will see that the theme here is that almost everything that Ron does as a volunteer at Hopkins stems from that strong, strong relationship that he has with the Class of ’63. You may or may not know – the golf course for the Hopkins Golf Tournament is donated by Judy Smith and her family to Hopkins for this wonderful event every year.  More importantly, and close to my heart and close to Ron’s heart and to the other members of ’63, this golf tournament takes place in memory of Judy’s brother and our classmate, Paul Smith, who was really an amazing guy and whose memory lives with us all the time, but very strongly on the day when we go out and play golf.

Organizing golf tournaments is not something Ron does once a year, he keeps our class together all the time.  He’s always getting us together – we once had to sit through an insurance presentation so that we could play golf for free.  And for people who are follicley challenged like me, he is always providing a golf hat.  Here we have the 2008 45th Reunion version, and five years later our 50th Reunion.  Ron does this on his own – never asks anything for it and every one of those hats has a PTS on the back for Paul Smith.  

I think I have spoken to what he did for our 50th Reunion – we had more than half of our class come back, thanks to Ron’s hard work.  And we raised over $200,000 for a New Haven area kid to come to this school – the Class of 1963 Scholarship.  There is just no way that that would have happened had it not been for Ron.
 
So one of his classmates, Mark Sklarz, who is a former trustee and the recipient of the Hopkins Medal, who is way more articulate than I could ever be –wrote the following, because he couldn’t be here - and I think it’s a great way to end.

“My heartiest congratulations to Ron Groves on this highly deserved and long time due recognition as Hopkins School 'Volunteer of the Year.'  I have known Ron since we played Little League baseball together at nine years old and know of no one who is more loyal and dedicated to those he loves and that which he cherishes.
 
Ron’s work as a volunteer for Hopkins has been extraordinary; whether as the consummate annual fund telephone participant for decades; organizer of the annual golf tournament; member of the Alumni/ae Association; class representative prodding procrastinating classmates for class notes; leader of each reunion event and supplier of memorable hats for class members; vociferous sideline parent encouraging his sons; and in endless other ways, Ron has been without peer in giving his time and devotion to Hopkins and our Hopkins Grammar School class of 1963. Characteristic of Ron, all of this has been performed in the most modest and quiet manner without any thought of recognition–solely evolving from his affection for Hopkins and his classmates.   It is that which makes today and this award so special–thanking Ron for who he is and what he has so selflessly contributed of himself.  Hopkins and all of us associated with the school have been blessed by Ron’s extraordinary work and commitment.  Thank you Ron and again, congratulations on a very much deserved award.”