BERLIN – Students at Worcester Preparatory School recently raised $1,000 for a foundation dedicated to supporting veteran recovery and rehabilitation.
A casual dress day at Worcester Preparatory School (WPS) resulted in $1,000 for Catch a Lift, a foundation that gives post 9/11 combat veterans the chance to rehabilitate through physical fitness.
“They’ve had a tremendous impact on veterans,” said Dr. John McDonald, WPS head of school.
According to McDonald, seniors Ava Wilsey and Caitlyn Hoen suggested a dress down day—an opportunity for students to dress casually in exchange for a $2 donation to a nonprofit—he immediately thought of his former college roommate Chris Coffland. Coffland’s family created a foundation in his memory following his death in 2009.
“Chris loved football, his parents live in Ocean Pines and his niece graduated from Worcester Prep,” McDonald said. “It all made sense.”
And so students got to wear their favorite football jerseys just before the Super Bowl, raising $1,000 for the Catch a Lift Foundation. Coffland’s parents, David and Toni Coffland, stopped by Worcester Prep this week to accept the donation. David Coffland said the funding would help the foundation continue its efforts to support combat veterans regain their mental and physical health through fitness.
“We have over 8,000 veterans enrolled,” he said. “What we do is we buy them gym memberships anywhere they’d like.”
When veterans aren’t able to visit gyms, the foundation buys workout equipment for their homes. It can also help with personalized fitness and nutrition programs and a peer support network.
“It’s been very productive,” Coffland said.
McDonald was pleased WPS was able to support the foundation created in honor of his former roommate and football teammate at Washington & Lee University.
“He was a fitness fiend,” McDonald recalled. “He was probably in the best shape of anyone I ever met. When he’d go workout, he’d always say I’m going to go catch a lift.”
Coffland was captain of the football and lacrosse teams during his college years and went on to play football in Finland and coach in Australia. He studied anthropology, visiting the rain forest of Gabon, and worked at the Art Institute of Seattle and at Loyola Marymount Institute in Los Angeles. Coffland enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 41 and died in 2009 in Afghanistan serving during Operation Enduring Freedom.
“He lived quite a life,” McDonald said.
