Merrying up the holidays at our annual open house

Over 300 came to LaSalle on Saturday, December 6th to kick off the circuit of parties and open houses marking the holiday season and benefiting the work of the Catholic Women’s Service League. The event was also the last for LaSalle’s 160th anniversary year.

A committee made up of staff and ladies from the CWSL was responsible for organizing and carrying off the event. It has traditionally been a fundraiser for the League in their work to provide the boys at LaSalle with opportunities that for many of us are taken for granted such as birthday celebrations, Halloween parties, Christmas presents, and even the recognition of non-denominational religious rites.

The open house was held in LaSalle’s gymnasium in their Arts, Technology and Physical Education Center. Recent open house fundraisers have included typical 50/50 raffles, silent auctions, and an increasingly popular bingo game with gift certificates to Albany restaurants as the prizes. This year a ‘Giving Tree’ was added to the list. All tolled over $8,000 was raised to support the League’s work in 2015.

Students and staff once again wowed guests with hundreds of homemade appetizers, desserts, and refreshments from barbecued bacon wrapped shrimp to chicken carver stuffed with cranberry dressing to melt in your mouth parfaits and butter cookies.

In addition to League members and LaSalle staff, attending were board members, peer agency executives, and dignitaries from Albany’s family court and probation departments. The event was sponsored by private donations, and there was no fee to attend.

LaSalle School offers programs and services to children and families including residential and specialized residential programming, day education services, an evening reporting center as well as the Counseling Center at LaSalle which offers a range of specialized outpatient services to youth and families struggling with mental health, addiction, trauma, and sexual abuse.

For more information about all of LaSalle’s programs and services, please telephone 518-242-4731.