Celebrate Bush | Home Team Heroes

On Saturday, March 14, Celebrate Bush: Home Team Heroes brought The Bush School community together for an evening of connection, inspiration, and shared purpose—grounded in the friendships and values that define a Bush education.

“Celebrate Bush enables us to deliver on a critical piece of our mission: bringing together students from diverse backgrounds and talents and sparking in them a passion for learning, accomplishment, and contribution to their communities,” reflected Head of School Sarah Smith.

Alumna Duyen Tat ’12 captured that spirit as she shared reflections on the lifelong friendships she built at Bush and the opportunities that helped shape her path.

“Everyone deserves the character-building, multidisciplinary education I was fortunate to experience here,” she said.

This year also marked the debut of the Golden Raffle, an exciting new addition to the Celebrate Bush lineup. One lucky winner received two United Airlines Polaris business class tickets to any United destination worldwide, opening the door to an unforgettable global adventure. We are especially grateful to United Airlines for their extraordinary generosity in making this experience possible. With each ticket purchased, supporters helped expand access to a Bush education for students and families across our community.

Under the leadership of event co-chairs Joey Burgess and Bryan Van Dusen, procurement lead Joanna Smith, and the dedication of thirty-two incredible volunteers, the evening was a tremendous success. Together, we raised $750,539 in support of financial aid.

Financial aid is making a Bush education possible for 167 students this year. Every gift, every ticket, every moment of generosity helps ensure that more students can learn, grow, and blaze their own trails.

We are deeply grateful to our sponsors, volunteers, attendees, and donors for making this event come to life!

Together, we made the following possible:

$750,539 raised in support of financial aid
$290,079 raised through Raise the Paddle
$41,100 raised from 411 Golden Raffle tickets sold
376 total registrants
$35,500 in sponsorships from twelve generous partners
32 volunteers who brought this event to life

Since 1980, Bush parents and guardians, faculty, staff, alumni, and students have collaborated on an annual auction to support the school, originally known as the Bush Auction. This tradition began even earlier in the 1960s with the Bush Basket rummage sale organized by the Mother’s Club. Today, Celebrate Bush remains a powerful example of community collaboration, bringing people together to expand access and opportunity through financial aid. Thank you!

A special thank you to the volunteers who made this event possible:

Event Co-Chairs

Joey Burgess
Bryan Van Dusen

Procurement Lead

Joanna Smith

Procurement Team

Alicia Alberg
Joelle Alhadeff
Kate Bayley ’96
Sarah Blankinship
Gretchen Boehm
Joey Burgess
Kelli Burns
Leanne Connors
Rachel Hartman
Toni-Ann Lupinacci
Ashley O’Connor McCready
Danielle Straight
Betsy Trapani
Stephanie True
Bryan Van Dusen
Mina Velamoor
Suzanna Westhagen
Judi Yates

Class Art Leads

Suzanna Westhagen
Judi Yates

Class Art Organizers

Gretchen Boehm
Joey Burgess
Kelli Burns
Forest Dickey
Catherine Eaton Skinner
Kaylen Flugel
Murf Hall
Justin Hunt
Ciel L. ’27
Hava M. ’27
Mamie Marcuss
Courtney McKlveen
Cecily Metzger
Iris Mondri-Kish
Akshata Raj
Anh Trinh

Decor Committee

Joey Burgess
Bryan Van Dusen

Thank you to Our Sponsors:

United Airlines
Mithun
Leone & Vaughn Orthodontics
Venture General Contracting
Bloom Projects LLC
Transformational Advisory Group
USI Insurance Services
The Tooth Ferry
InCity
Baker Tilly
Limantzakis Properties
Needle Genomics