Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund Honors Two at Spring Gala
Please Join Us At Our Spring Gala! The Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund 10th Annual Spring Gala is coming up this Friday, March 8 at the Mount Kisco Country Club. This event will honor Kelly Mofield Blair with the Taylor Family Award of Distinction for student and community support that goes above and beyond and Mike DeBellis with the Ed Habermann Award for being an exemplary role model and for going above and beyond to enrich the lives of our children. Dinner and drinks will be served.The night will include a live auction as well as a raffle for a fabulous 18K white gold and white topaz crown bracelet and a Big Green Egg as we celebrate our honorees.
Kelly Mofield Blair, Taylor Family Award of Distinction
A mother of five boys, all of whom have been educated by the Chappaqua school system, Kelly has spent over two decades engaging in student and community life. In 2005, Kelly left legal practice to focus on family, school and community. While at Grafflin, she served on or chaired most PTA committees, and for many years was either class parent or theater grade parent. However, she is likely best remembered for her role as Grafflin’s Appreciation Chair preparing specially themed parties of the Grafflin staff with other “closet catering” friends.
In addition to assisting her boys’ swim and lacrosse teams, Kelly is a lifelong supporter and former Board member of the Greeley Sports Boosters. There, she helped to “reinvent” the Homecoming tailgate tradition, supported the new turf field, and was part of the implementation of the team liaison system for Greeley sports community outreach.
Recently, as Greeley PTA Chair, Kelly spearheaded several new programs to connect faculty, administration and parents, and celebrate Greeley’s many activities and achievements. She created and still chairs Speed Interviewing Night, a fun event utilizing over 40 community volunteers to help upwards of 100 Greeley college applicants by conducting mock speed interviews.
Currently, Kelly is Chappaqua PTA Corresponding Secretary, Greeley’s Speed Interviewing Chair, PTA Observatory Liaison, a guidance office volunteer and co-parent liaison for the Class of 2021, where she helped initiate the annual class-wide Day of Giving. She is treasurer for her neighborhood, and active member and former deacon at Presbyterian Church of Mount Kisco, a volunteer for both her alma maters, and a member of her two older sons’ college parent committees as well as the co-creator and administrator of Emory’s parent Facebook group.
Kelly and her husband Bryan Blair (Greeley Class of 1986) enjoy spending their free time hiking and biking in Vermont and North Carolina with their boys, Graham (21), Seamus (19), Henry (17), Joseph (16) and Charlie (10).
Mike DeBellis, Ed Habermann Award
Mike has been involved in technology education for 21 years. For the past 16, he has taught in the Chappaqua Central School District at Bell, Seven Bridges and now Greeley. In 2006, Mike was recognized by New York State as Regional Technology Education Teacher of the Year. In 2008, he was featured in The New York Times for his work with the Seven Bridges Environmental Club. He currently teaches Introduction to Engineering, Robotics and Technology, and Design Integration classes at Greeley. Mike was integral to creating the new Maker Space at Greeley and was recognized by the Chappaqua School Foundation as Innovator of the Year in 2015 for those efforts. He also is the SETAM teacher for Bronx students from under-resourced high schools through the Chappaqua Summer Scholarship Program.
Mike has also been coaching wrestling in the district for 16 years. In both 2014 and 2016, eh earned the honor of League Coach of the Year. Under Mike’s and Anthony Tortora’s coaching, the 2017-18 Greeley team placed 7th in New York State and at the Eastern State Classic (140 schools from four states). Over the past decade, Greeley has had 26 All Section and 6 All State wrestlers; many of the program’s athletes have gone on to be top wrestling recruits at schools including Bucknell, Brown, and SUNY Binghamton. Mike is the consummate teacher and coach. He loves to see students find a problem to solve, create and execute a plan, see if it works, and if necessary, go back to the drawing board. He teaches these same goals and values to his wrestlers.
Mike is married to Joanne DeBellis and they have 3 awesome kids. Lilly is 10, Nicky is 9 and Jake is 7. He likes to spend his free time with his family upstate in Constableville, NY.
About the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund
Founded in 1946, the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund’s mission is to provide scholarships to Greeley graduates with demonstrated need. HGSF exists to “bridge the gap” that exists after all other financial resources available to students and their families have been exhausted.
The Board’s hopes is that in the future, no qualified Greeley graduate who needs financial assistance for college will be turned away. To learn more about the Horace Greeley Scholarship Fund or to donate click here.
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