A Night of Promise 2026

Waterbury Promise’s signature A Night of Promise fall fundraiser returns on Thursday, November 19, 2026, from 5:30–8:00 p.m. at The Aria in Prospect, CT!

Join us for an evening of music, delicious food, drinks, fabulous raffle prizes, and inspiring stories from our Promise Scholars.

This year is especially meaningful as we celebrate Waterbury Promise’s 5th Anniversary, a milestone year of tremendous growth and impact! Meet our incredible scholars, celebrate how far we’ve come, and help us honor the champions, partners, and supporters who have made our work possible. Together, we’ll celebrate the power of promise and community to transform lives and create brighter futures for Waterbury students through college access, success, and degree completion.

Five Years of Promise. More Than 1,000 Scholars. One Incredible Year of Impact!

Event proceeds (tickets and sponsorships) will support our growing program that includes generous last-dollar college scholarships, the Scholar Emergency Fund and critical wrap-around support services to ensure talented Waterbury students get to college, thrive there, persist through graduation and are career ready to create a robust and diverse talent pipeline for the CT economy. We are supporting the future leaders of our community—across 26 colleges and universities right here in Connecticut!

Eversource Energy Foundation, Ion Bank Foundation, and the Connecticut Community Foundation will be honored with our Keeper of the Promise Awards, recognizing their extraordinary partnership and commitment as champions of Waterbury Promise. For the first time, we will also recognize our Volunteer of the Year, Ann Feinberg, for her dedicated service and commitment to our scholars and mission.

Their collective support and belief in our vision have helped Waterbury Promise reach remarkable milestones. Today, we are serving more than 1,000 scholars with four cohorts enrolled in college concurrently, have achieved our goal of providing last-dollar scholarships of up to $5,000 per scholar, per year, all four years of college, and proudly celebrated our first four-year college graduates this past May.

These milestones represent the power of partnership—and what is possible when a community comes together to keep the promise for Waterbury students.

You can give the gift of a college education by:

• Purchasing tickets to celebrate with us on Thursday, November 19th through Eventbrite OR by RSVPing to Angela Ciochetti at aciochetti@waterburypromise.org and mailing a check to Waterbury Promise, 236 Grand Street, Suite 120, Waterbury, CT 06702 by November 12th.
• Making a special donation at https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/waterburypromisescholarship if you can’t be there in person. We’ll know you’re with us in spirit!
• Becoming an event sponsor by emailing Kelonda Maull at Kelonda.Maull@waterburypromise.org to help us reach our $75,000 fundraising goal! Sponsorship details are on the flyer below.
• Sharing this invitation with your friends, family and colleagues to spread the word about our event. We LOVE referrals!

A HUGE thank you to the members of our amazing Event Planning Committee: Dr. Marcia Tejeda (Chair), Ann Feinberg, Carrie Raybeck, Angela Ciochetti, and Noelia Alicea.

We can’t wait to see you on November 19th!