Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's BIG Auction! We'd especially like to thank all of the donors and buyers for their supreme generosity; without you this wouldn't have been possible. This year's auction was a great success!

For photos of the 2008 BIG Auction, please visit our flash-based photo site here. Think BIG!

For over seventy-five years, LREI has been a vanguard progressive school, looked to for leadership throughout the world of education. Its primary mission is educating students to become independent thinkers - lifelong learners pursuing academic excellence and individual achievement in a context of respect for others and service to the community.

The Big Auction proceeds support LREI's Annual Fund, which contributes to the Tuition Remission Program. LREI, like every independent school and college in this country, depends on annual giving to meet the real cost of educating students. Tuition dollars cover approximately 90% of LREI's annual operating budget and the Annual Fund provides the rest.

Central to LREI's mission is a strong commitment to diversity. The Tuition Remission Program enables the LREI community to include families coming from every economic level.

For the 2007-2008 school year, almost 25% of LREI's operating budge is allocated to providing tuition assistance to over a third of the families attending LREI. As enrollment at LREI grows each year so does the amount of money needed to maintain LREI's commitment to such an encompassing Tuition Remission Program. As you can see from the graphs below, The Big Auction and the Annual Fund have experienced amazing growth during the last seven years. This has allowed tuition remission to meet the level of our commitment.