On February 6th, two students represented LaSalle School at the Future Business Leaders of America…
LaSalle mission motivates Siena College student to act
Unique things start to happen when the children of LaSalle staff start to learn, grow, and begin to achieve. Meghan Deguire, a junior marketing major at Siena College and the daughter of Tom Deguire, LaSalle’s school supervisor, made her parents sit up and take notice that yes, she has been paying attention to all her Dad has been doing these past 29+ years to support her and the whole Deguire family.
“I have two children and they both grew up hearing stories day in and day out about LaSalle students and really what they hear is what the kids don’t have compared to what they do have,” said Tom Deguire.
As part of a class project last fall, Meghan found an opportunity to contribute to LaSalle’s youth in her own way. She created a marketing concept that resulted in free Devil’s hockey tickets for 10 LaSalle School youth. Meghan worked with Devil’s CEO Christopher Ciceri to pitch her idea, negotiate for 10 tickets, and join together to be interviewed for a Time Warner Cable news segment to explain the process and its tremendous outcome.
When all was said and done, Ciceri was so impressed with Meghan’s sales pitch that he upped the ante tenfold, donating 100 tickets to students and staff for the January hockey game which draws 5,000 to the Times Union Center.
“It’s one thing to sell, but it’s another thing to sell passionately,” said Ciceri. Meghan was shocked at the good fortune of the LaSalle kids, and heartened by the depth of her commitment to LaSalle’s kids and her own marketing skills. “My mouth dropped open and I almost didn’t know how to react right away. It was such a generous offer and so kind,” she said.
This isn’t the first time Tom Deguire has worked to secure tickets a Capital Region sporting event. But it is a first time his daughter took the lead to develop a concept where she, herself, implemented the marketing skills of negotiation, public speaking, advocacy, and communications for the benefit of the kids her Dad has devoted much of his career to helping succeed.
Meghan said that LaSalle’s students wouldn’t necessarily have this chance without our efforts and without this program, and was just happy to give them the opportunity.
LaSalle School is a 160 year old residential treatment center in Albany’s Pine Hills neighborhood serving youth in crisis with a variety of programs designed to meet their needs including residential placement, day service education, an alternative to detention and specialized programming and The Counseling Center at LaSalle, an outpatient mental health clinic.