Congé 2019 celebrates Woodlands' Sacred Heart past, present and future.

Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart's 46th annual Congé fundraiser takes place Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Glen View Club, 100 Golf Road, Golf, IL, 60029.

It all begins with cocktails and silent auction at 6 p.m. followed by dinner and the program, including a live auction. Participants will be able to bid on a wide variety of items. They also can help Woodlands Academy faculty obtain "wish list" items aimed at enhancing the classroom experience. The evening's events conclude with a nightcap called Après Soirée - offering coffee and liqueurs - at 10 p.m.

Individual tickets are $250 each. Additionally, there are several sponsorship opportunities available as another way of supporting Woodlands' mission of educating young women in transformative ways on its Lake Forest campus. And there's also the CongéCash Raffle with a prize of $2,500. Tickets are $100 each - or three for $250 - and can be purchased online. Proceeds from this year's event will benefit the school's Center for Global Studies.

The evening's program will feature the thoughts of three speakers on various aspects of Woodlands Academy's Sacred Heart connection:

• Sister Nancy Kehoe, RSCJ, a member of the Woodlands Academy Board of Trustees, will offer reflections on the past. Kehoe, who has served as an assistant professor in the department of psychology at Harvard Medical School, is the author of "Wrestling with Our Inner Angels: Faith, Mental Illness and the Journey to Wholeness."

• Annie Sullivan - a member of Woodlands' class of 2010 who graduated from Yale University in 2014 and now is senior director at CCS Fundraising, a strategic fundraising firm that partners with nonprofits for transformational change - will focus on the present.

• Nancy Scott Considine - whose recent generous financial gift in support of the Center for Global Studies at Woodlands will help achieve the school's goal of international travel for all its students as well as a means for possible future expansion of the center's programming - will be joined by members of her family in looking ahead to the future. Considine is the mother of seven and grandmother of two Woodlands Academy alumnae.

Congé, derived from the French word for "play date," is one of the major fundraising events supported annually by the Woodlands Academy Parent Association, Alumnae Parents Connection and local alumnae. This year's co-chairs are: Liz Cullinane, Celeste Denton, Bridgette Doheny and Mary Beth Hopp.

To purchase tickets, or for more information, visit: https://one.bidpal.net/conge19, or you may contact Kathy Fivelson, Woodlands Academy's associate director of advancement for events, at 847-234-4300, ext. 226.

Founded in 1858, Woodlands Academy is an independent Catholic college preparatory day and boarding high school for young women. It's part of a worldwide network of Sacred Heart Schools that spans the United States and 40 other countries. A nonprofit, Woodlands Academy's identity is rooted in Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat's desire to inspire young hearts and minds to excel, to lead lives of integrity and

to serve. For more information about Woodlands Academy, please visit www.woodlandsacademy.org.