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Dear colleague,

You probably don’t remember the muffins.

Over the last decade, we’ve tried all kinds of messages to encourage you to support the SCS Annual Fund. We’ve used inspirational quotes from Homer, Ovid, Plutarch, and Cavafy; we’ve included testimonials from grateful recipients of fellowships; we’ve offered matching gifts; we’ve set our text as limericks; and yes, we’ve even tried muffins as metaphors.

But this year is different from any other, and so is this email.

We’re skipping the rhetorical flourishes to focus on the main point: the Annual Fund still answers the urgent needs of our society and its members, and those needs have never been more urgent.

·The SCS has offered free membership renewal and Annual Meeting registration for those who need it most, and your gifts provide direct and immediate support for these important goals. The SCS-WCC COVID-19 Relief Fund also continues to provide assistance to those who are most directly affected by the pandemic.

·Even in these times, our society must also continue to support new scholarship and new voices, and the Annual Fund does just that. The Frank M. Snowden Jr. Scholarships (formerly the Minority Scholarships), the TLL and Pearson Fellowship funds, the Mountaintop Coalition, and more are all funded by your contributions.

·Through the Classics Advisory Service, the SCS helps to defend departments from the threat of reductions or elimination.

If your budget has room for generosity, we hope you’ll keep in mind those for whom that may not be the case. Even small gifts matter a great deal. If you’ve never given, or if you can only give a little, your gift is very welcome. If you can do more, please do. Here’s the link.

We’ve said it for years, and it’s never been more true: we’re all in this together.

With gratitude,

Chris Brunelle, Annual Fund Committee chair

Rob Ketterer, Annual Fund Committee member