Katie Witherspoon
Skip Davenport, right, chairman of the Greater Greer Education Foundation, talks with Grants Committee Chairman David Dolge, before presenting grants to 10 schools Thursday at a reception at Greer City Hall.
The Greater Greer Education Foundation presented $9,469.65 in grant money to 9 school in Greenville and Spartanburg counties at a news conference Feb. 1 at Greer City Hall.
Chairman Skip Davenpor welcomed the recipients and noted that Since 2011, the Foundation has awarded grants and scholarships totaling more than $141,000,” Davenport said. “And we are happy to announce that with today’s grants, that number increases to more than $150,000.
Grants Committee Chairman David Dolge, addressed the group: "As a retired educator, giving away money is one of the perks to working with the GGEF. We sincerely appreciate the invaluable efforts of all teachers and are pleased to be able to help some of them in their classrooms with these grants. As an organization, the GGEF’s goal is to be able to fund all requests and we continue to work toward that goal.
"As always, however, we appreciate those donors who help make our work possible and those educators and school staff who devote their time, expertise, and efforts toward helping our children learn."
Dolge then presented grants to the following:
Resource Teacher Jody Dill of Mountain View Elementary School will use the $441.06 grant presented to her school to incorporate movement into learning math facts, reasoning skills and more by teaching math concepts using floor mats, carpets, beanbags and math games.
Garrison Howard, a music teacher at Mountain View Elementary School will use the $803.42 grant presented to his school to purchase an educational music rug that will be used for drum “circles,” folk dances, “spots” for children to sit in, rhythmic and melodic “circle” games and also to teach music literacy.
Rhonda Childs, a literacy specialist at Tigerville Elementary School, will use the school’s $907.17 grant to purchase mentor texts to be used with the Interactive Read-Alouds book, written to provide developmentally appropriate lessons to help students expand and practice the standards.
Debbie Holcombe, physical education teacher at Byrnes High School, has developed the FIGHT (Friends Into Getting Healthy Together) Club, an after-school get fit/weight loss program. Debbie is very familiar to us. We have funded grants for her program for several years and those grants, and Debbie’s commitment, have changed many lives. Today we present a grant of $1,000.
Travis Farnham, a teacher at Blue Ridge High School, will use the school’s $1,000 grant to develop a comprehensive broadcast journalism program. The grant will help update equipment and editing software, which will help improve students’ work ethics, skills and devotion to the program.
Chandler Creek Assistant Principal Jennifer Dodds accepted a $1,500 grant for her school. The grant will be used to continue their Work in Progress program. In this program, students learn valuable life skills such as how to properly shake hands, open doors, make eye contact and address someone older with respect. Students live by the motto: “Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good.”
Amy Lewis and Natalie Hester, STEAM lab teacher and media specialist, will use the $1,000 grant presented to their school to unite STEAM lab and Maker Space. An Ozobot Classroom Kit will be purchased to further advance the collaboration between the two. Ozobots are tiny robots that blend the physical and digital world. They enable students to discover the language of code.
Jennifer Davis, a music teacher at Crestview Elementary School, will use the school’s $1,000 grant to provide students in her class with ukuleles, instruments that are relatively simple to learn, teach musical standards and are affordable. In May, the fourth-graders will perform a recorder concert and it is Davis’ goal that the fifth-grade students will company them on their ukuleles.
Joshua Albin, assistant principal at Tigerville Elementary School, will receive a $1,000 grant to purchase leveled reading books. These books teach educators to use small books that are simply leveled from A-Z based on difficulty. The goal is to motivate struggling readers so they will want to read and ultimately improve their reading levels.
Lisa Jo Hansen, instructional coach at Tigervillle Elementary School, will use the school’s $817.90 grant for the Words Matter curriculum. The practices and philosophy of Words Matter create and support effective word solving with students through a variety of research-based activities.