This time of year, the Eastern WV Community Foundation looks forward to reading final reports submitted by our Mini-Grants to Teachers recipients. The maximum award is $500 and we marvel at the impact these grants have on classrooms across the Eastern Panhandle. There are always one or two grants that really resonate with our team and this year’s award of $224.95 for an Alphabet Recognition Extravaganza project to Back Creek Valley Elementary Pre-K teacher Shauna Herber is one of our favorites.
In the final report, Ms. Herber included marvelous photographs of her students using the various tools purchased with the grant to help them learn their alphabet. “My students were so excited to receive the materials and they spent time searching in the alphabet collage beads for the letters in their names to make personalized necklaces. They were so proud to wear them,” she stated. “The giant magnetic letters work well on our classroom door. Students work together to spell words or to put them in alphabetical order. They even celebrated the wedding of Q & U and all the letters were invited.”
Ms. Herber also mentioned how these alphabet tools will be able to be shared with other classes this year and for years to come. EWVCF is pleased to be able to support education in such a hands-on, tangible way and we thank one of our mentors, the late Susan Landis of the Beckley Area Foundation, for encouraging us to start our own mini-grants program in 2013. Since its inception, we have awarded nearly $200,000 in Mini-Grants to Teachers from Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, and Hampshire counties.