EVERY PRIVATE school dreams of hiring an inspired fund-raiser, and Severn School seems to have found one with a Midas touch.
Laurette L. Hankins, who left Severna Park for the bright lights of New York and a career that mixed fund raising and show biz, took over this month as Severn School's director of development.
"What an extraordinary twist of fate for me, after living in New York and elsewhere for so many years, to be able to truly come back home," Hankins said.
"There are so many connections for me. My uncle, John Giddings, was a member of the Severn Class of 1950, and one of my best friends in high school, Cindy Ward, is the daughter of the late Adm. Alfred G. Ward, Severn's headmaster at the time."
Hankins, a Severna Park High School graduate, said she would have attended Severn, but the school didn't accept female students until 1971 - when she was going into her last year in high school.
After high school, she received an art degree at Duke University. She spent the next few years as a professional singer and actress. In Maryland, she appeared at the Lazy Susan Dinner Theatre, the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre and the short-lived Heritage Dinner Theatre in Severna Park. She also performed in Washington and New York.
While in New York, she took an office job at the Metropolitan Opera - and rubbed elbows with such legends as Placido Domingo (she says the famed tenor was charming) and Mikhail Baryshnikov (she found the dancer a bit imperious).
Working at the Met was quite an experience for the young woman. And, she said: "The Met was my introduction to opera and development."
She went on to work at Fordham University and Towson University and then spent five years at the Peabody Institute at the Johns Hopkins University.
At Hopkins, she headed a campaign that set out to raise $20 million - but ended up raising more than $32 million.
She also was chairwoman of a training program for more than 150 professional development and alumni relations staff members at Hopkins.
Now, she is eager to take on a new challenge.
Severn School completed the first phase of the Campaign for Severn two years ago, resulting in the construction of a new student center, two new athletic fields and new landscaping. The school recently updated its five-year strategic plan, which listed more classroom space, improved athletic facilities and a larger endowment as priorities.
