Groton - In a move uncommon at public schools, a group of Fitch High School alumni has formed a nonprofit organization to allow graduates to give back.

The group, started last year with $5,000 in seed money from the Board of Education, is an effort to do more than plan class reunions. Instead, it will be a way to finance projects and programs at Fitch.

"We're certainly eager to support the people who are in the building, whether they are students, teachers, or faculty, to help them create programming and get resources," said Eric Janney, president of the newly formed Fitch Senior High Alumni Foundation. Janney, a graduate of the Class of 1984, is a lawyer in Groton who lives in Stonington.

The founders, Janney said, felt they benefited greatly from their years at Fitch and wanted a way to give back. The group will be similar to the Groton Education Fund, but will focus its efforts solely on the high school.

"Certainly in private schools, this is not a new type of thing," Janney said.

"I think all of us who are involved feel very good about the educational experience we got in the Groton Public Schools and at the high school in particular. So this is a way to reach back, say thank you and help."

Membership is open to anyone. A $20 donation to the foundation, which is a tax-deductible nonprofit organization, is requested.

Janney said the group hopes to reach out to alumni in a number of ways, including through social-networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

"One of the Fitch alumni groups on Facebook has 800 members," Janney said. "So we want to reach out to those groups, wave our flag, and say, 'Hey, we're here to help your alma mater.'"

While the Fitch alumni group is small, its goals are nonetheless lofty.

"We don't have to say we've got to build a new swimming pool, but that's not to say that isn't something that's in the future," Janney said. "That would be a far-off, distant goal for us to finance those substantial, brick-and-mortar kind of projects."

m.collette@theday.com