Eleven teachers in the South Whidbey School District were recently surprised with grant letters totaling $20,000 for 13 classroom project requests.
Jean Shaw of the South Whidbey Schools Foundation and Jim Freeman, a Freeland “Conductor of Fun,” made surprise visits to the classrooms on Nov. 9 with balloons in hand, a top hat, feather boa and crown.
Grant awards ranged from $439 to $3,000. Each campus received at least one grant award, and some of the projects funded involve all campuses.
The projects included the reviving of performing arts at the high school; digital cameras for use in the journalism/yearbook program; funding for local musician clinics to work with members of the Langley Middle School Band; sponsoring a marine studies program at the Elementary School; providing seed money to help broaden the reach of the 8th grade Adventure Education program; purchasing a Sensory Water Table for Life Skills students; and purchasing recorders so students can participate in a collaborative effort with the Saratoga Orchestra engaged in a Carnegie Hall-sponsored music education program titled “The Orchestra Rocks.”
The foundation funded 13 out of the 16 requests by teachers. It also found a patron to fund one of three unfunded project proposals through its Adopt-A-Grant program.
Additional fundraising efforts, like Dine-Out Wednesday or a donation appeal drive at the end of the year, will go toward providing partial funding for the remaining three project requests, the press release said. The foundation is seeking patrons for the remaining two unfunded project proposals.
Foundation Board President Chris Gibson said in a press release that while the number of grant applications received was slightly less than last year “all those we did receive were innovative, well-presented and worthy of funding.”
More information about the South Whidbey Schools Foundation, including a full list of the projects funded this fall, the Adopt-A-Grant program, and how to make tax-deductible contributions, can be found at www.swsfoundation.org.
