“For the youth, by the youth” is the motto of CROYA (Committee Representing Our Young Adults). On February 1st, this motto was made true as the youth of CROYA raised over $34,000 dollars at their biennial fundraiser.
CROYA’s fundraiser is held every other year to raise money for the CROYA facilities and missions. High School Youth Manager, Catherine Lawniczack, oversees how the youth contributes to the fundraiser, and collaborates with the CROYA high school executive board to choose the mission of the fundraiser each year.
“The executive board helps us decide what happens at the event. They help us determine what the fundraiser is for and take leadership as it is for the youth by youth. We want it to be meaningful for the kids,” Lawniczack said.
This year, the mission of the fundraiser was to raise money for The Heart of CROYA: the kitchen! 
The kitchen is the cornerstone of CROYA’s facilities. Whether it is middle-schoolers participating in cooking club, or high schoolers eating pizza and catching up, the kitchen is the place to be social in the CROYA facility. Although CROYA kids love the kitchen as it is now, the youth and fundraising chairs of the high school executive board determined that updating the kitchen would be the most beneficial focus of their 2025 fundraiser.
Foundation Liaison Lexi Bentley along with the fundraising chairs helped to plan the schedule, activities, sponsors, and the raffle.
“We decided to aim to use our money towards the kitchen because it has not been renovated in over 20 years. The process of planning the fundraiser was long and hard but so worth it,” said Bentley.
The goal of the CROYA staff and high school executive board was to raise $75,000 for the new kitchen appliances. As the last biennial fundraiser in 2023 also had this goal, and raised over $30,000, the combination of the totals is close to the goal and allows for drawings of the reconstruction of the kitchen to begin shortly!
“This is one of the bigger goals that we’ve tried to achieve in terms of money. It has taken us more than one fundraiser this time, but I think that it has made it meaningful for the kids to understand just how big of an undertaking it is,” said Lawniczack.
Senior Fundraising Chair Charlotte Arvia also played a big part in planning the fundraiser.
“Our fundraising meetings began in September, and we worked really hard for four months to make the fundraiser successful and meaningful to everyone that attended,” Arvia said.
The money is raised in a variety of ways, so that community members have different options on how they would like to donate to the cause.
The executive board reaches out to local businesses to offer raffle items, and the money used for buying the raffle tickets is donated. There is also a live auction at the event hosted by high school students, offering another opportunity for donations. This year, the addition of online donations was added, allowing for donations to start before the day of the fundraiser occurred.
“Having the online donations option this year was a huge plus. It allowed us to jump start the fundraiser and helped make it even more successful,” senior CROYA Chairwoman Cate Lee said.
Sophomores Shea Milliman and Liam Sheridan contributed in their own special way, by providing music entertainment as people socialized at the start of the fundraiser. (photo courtesy of croya.com)
“The live music from a band and from LFHS students, made the event a great success. I’m very proud of the hard work the team put into this event, which paid off, and I’m excited to see CROYA continue to grow and strengthen our community!” sophomore fundraising chair Carina Lagunas said.
CROYA continues to be a unique outlet in our community and provides a plethora of leadership opportunities for high school students. The youth is able to understand what it is like to plan an event that is beneficial for a whole community. It is especially special for the executive board as they are able to get an inside look on what it is like to see their ideas come to life.
“It was super inspiring to see how something I was apart of was able to gain so much traction. I’m glad people were able to witness the difference we are making and wanted to help contribute,” executive board Parliamentarian Graydon Duncan said.
