Chelsea Dean is a Senior Account Manager for Wellington.
When Joan Wells, Wellington co-founder and CEO, first ventured to build an event planning company more than 20 years ago, she sought ways to empower the Kansas City community through her strong skill set of creative and logistical planning. Joan understood the value of strengthening the relationship between civic organizations and their audience and she saw events as the vehicle to achieve sustainability for those organizations.
The Catholic Education Foundation is near and dear to Joan’s heart and has been for many years. Joan is passionate about giving CEF students the tools to achieve a more fruitful future through the power of education and faith. Her direct involvement as Chair of the CEF Board of Directors led to Wellington becoming a strategic event partner for the Gaudeamus annual fundraiser.
As the leader of the Wellington team that serves Gaudeamus, I can say that we are honored for the opportunity to play a small role in the event’s success. Gaudeamus perfectly showcases the power of events. The funds raised through Gaudeamus are part of a large effort that provided more than 1,400 scholarships at 20 CEF schools last year.
When we first became involved with the event in 2015, we worked diligently to identify strategies that would enhance the production of the program onstage. The messages delivered during the program are powerful, eye opening and uplifting. We strive for the production quality to mimic the importance of what is being communicated onstage. Every year the bar is set higher for Gaudeamus and we are once again up for the challenge of making Gaudeamus the best it can be by collaborating with the CEF office on logistical and production enhancements. As we know, a foundation is only as strong as the involvement of its community. We believe that continuing to engage the Catholic community through Gaudeamus will provide a promising future for thousands of students to come.
