The Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation, which is slated to receive $100,000 from the Annual Catholic Appeal, is one of nine areas of education funded by the appeal, including elementary school assistance, archdiocesan high schools, parochial high schools, special education and more.

The foundation provides need-based tuition assistance scholarships to families attending parochial or private elementary schools. This spring, TTEF awarded more than $9 million in scholarships to 4,500 local children for the 2020-21 school year.

Marc Stoff is the father of three children: daughter Kyra, a rising seventh-grader at St. Roch School in St. Louis; son Luke, who will be a freshman at Saint Louis University High School; and son Nigel, a graduate of Catholic schools, who will be a sophomore at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

As a single parent, Stoff said the support of the Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation has helped to make Catholic education a possibility for his children.

“I was raised in Catholic schools, and one of the things that was important to me is that my children have that same opportunity,” Stoff said. “I’m not one to look for a handout, but if it was necessary I was going to fulfill my promise, I was going to need some help.”

Stoff approached then-St. Roch principal Gloria Openlander about assistance in paying for tuition. “I said, I’m not sure how we’re going to pull this off, but through a combination of scholarships from Today and Tomorrow and the parish itself, we were able to figure out a way to make it happen. You have to have that drive to keep it going.”

Stoff cited the importance of Catholic education and the values his children are taught there. “As a single father, I want to make sure wherever my kids are educated, the same kinds of things I am instilling at home are also being instilled at school. I am guaranteed that at a Catholic school.”

The Today and Tomorrow Educational Foundation was founded in 1991 by Archbishop John L. May and Sister Mary Ann Eckhoff, SSND, with support from the local business community, to provide partial tuition assistance scholarships to help low-income children attend faith-based schools. The foundation has raised more than $125 million for scholarships from local and national funding sources since its inception.