ECCF grants support Elkwood Arts woodworking

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St. Marys, PA, October 3, 2017: The Board of Directors of the Elk County Community Foundation (ECCF) is pleased to announce that Elkwood Arts, a program of Dickinson Center, Inc. was awarded grant for $7,400 from the Harrison & Muriel Dauer Stackpole Family Fund and Elk County Community Development Fund to refurbish their well-used laser engraver machine.
Elkwood Arts is a licensed vocational facility providing training and sheltered employment to intellectually and developmentally disabled adults, producing excellent quality, hand-made wood products. The program has given individuals with these disabilities the chance to maximize their independence, integrate into the community, and above all, a chance to work.

Located at 43 Servidea Drive in Ridgway, Elkwood Arts teaches the skills to create, market and sell the products generated. The 15 consumers who participate in this program produce top quality products including cutting boards, favors, clocks, cabinets, bottle openers, waste baskets, frames, benches, wall signs, wine bottle toppers and many more unique products. Products can be viewed on their website at www.elkwoodarts.com or stop by and see for yourself the beautiful gift items that are the outcome of this vocational program.
The Elk County Community Foundation is a non-profit organization that strives to strengthen our region through development, stewardship and grant making as it works with donors to achieve their philanthropic goals. For more information contact ECCF at 834-2125, by email at eccf@windstream.net, or visit their website at www.elkcountyfoundation.com.
Pictured left to right: Janet Leahy, Elkwood Arts Graphic Designer; Nancy Hoffman, Foundation Board member; Heidi Thomas, DCI Executive Director; Paula Eddy, Elk County Community Foundation Executive Director; Tim Thomas, Elkwood Arts Production Manager; Ken Staurt, Elkwood Arts Carpenter

A Scholarship Just for Hunters!

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A Scholarship Just for Hunters!

The Elk County Community Foundation(ECCF) is very pleased to announce that the Wapiti Roost Local Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) has decided to partner with the Community Foundation to administer their local Scholarship. The NWTF will be offering a post-secondary academic scholarship of $500 to a student in Elk County. Scholarship applications are now available through all Elk County High School Guidance’s offices. Student who are avid hunters and are dedicated to preserving the hunting tradition would be an ideal candidate for this scholarship.

The National Wild Turkey Federation Scholarship is part of a nationwide program that has provided over $4,000,000 in scholarships since its inception. The recipient of the local scholarship will be eligible to compete for a $1000 scholarship funded by the Pennsylvania State Chapter of the NWTF. In turn, the State Chapter scholarship winner will be eligible to compete for a $10,000 national scholarship. Because of the progression of the state and national program, the deadline for this scholarship is different than other scholarship administered by the Foundation. To ensure there is enough time to submit to the state, scholarship application will need to be received to high school guidance’s offices shortly after the Christmas/Holiday break.

In addition to the $500 from the local scholarship the winner of this scholarship, like all others administered by the Community Foundation, may receive matching dollars from PHEAA through the PATH (Partners for Access To Higher Education) program. As one of only 37 approved organizations that are PATH partners, the Elk County Community Foundation will submit each student who receives one of the scholarships that they administer to PHEAA for additional matching funding. To be eligible, the student must be enrolled in an approved Pennsylvania College or career school and be PHEAA approved. Last year, students that received ECCF scholarships received over $63,000 in additional awards. This is one of the reasons that many donors come to the Foundation to establish their scholarships. This program can potentially double their scholarship award through the PATH program.

The Community Foundation assists donors who have an interest in starting a scholarship fund, whether as a general purpose or in the memory of a deceased family member or friend. Interested parties are encouraged to contact the foundation for further information on the matter or check out the information on their website at www.elkcountyfoundation.com.

Pictured from left is Bill Olson from the Wapiti Wood Chapter of the NWTF and Kris Kronenwetter, Scholarship Manager at the ECCF

Non-Profit Academy to Occur October 28

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Non-Profit Academy to Occur October 28

The Elk County Community Foundation and the Leadership Elk County Alumni have joined together to plan a local Non-Profit Academy: Working to Empower Non-Profits and Keep Communities Strong. This half day conference will be held on Oct 28th at The Highlands, formerly the St. Marys Country Club from 8 to 1:30. Non-profit leaders, executives, front line staff, board members and volunteers from Elk County and the surrounding region are encouraged to attend.

The event is a conference where attendees will network, share and learn. This event will feature keynote speaker Todd Parisi. The title of his motivational talk for nonprofit staff and volunteers is entitled “Empower the Hour, Slay the Day”. Todd was born in St. Marys and graduated from SMAHS 1986. He joined the United States Marine Corps at the young age of 17. He served in the United States Marine Corps for 28 years where he had many accomplishments. Sergeant Major Parisi retired from the Marine Corps in September of 2014. Following his retirement, Todd served as a Freshmen High School Teacher at Nation Ford High School in Fort Mill, South Carolina where he was nominated as Teacher of the Year for 2014-2015. He is currently pursuing Leadership based/Motivational Speaking full time and has grown a reputation and passion for helping non-profits and individuals. “Encouraging, enthusiastic, energetic, empowering, extraordinary, engaging, and exhilarating are a few words that come to mind when the name Todd Parisi is spoken. His words, stories and memories keep everyone on the edge of their seats making sure not a word is missed.” said Anne Herzing – Elementary Principal, Francis S. Grandinetti Elementary School in Ridgway after speaking at her school.

Other presenters including: Tish Mogan from the PA Association of Non-profit Organizations; Matt Checchio, of Mangus Marketing; and Padraic McGrath, CPA and Jeremy Toman of Knox Law. Topics for the day are described on this downloadable flyer and registration form: 16 NP Academy flyer & Registration.pdf

Save $10 by registering early. The early bird registration is Monday Oct 19th. For more information and to register, contact the Foundation at 814-834-2125.

Picture Attached: Todd Parisi

Women Who Care Annual Granting Event

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Women Who Care Annual Granting Event

Women Who Care, a project of the Elk County Community Foundation, held its annual granting business meeting at the Elk Visitors Center was held recently.  This year the “Road Trip” to the Vistors Center not only included their annual granting and membership meeting but offered a unique opportunity for the members to take a Wagon Ride, see and hear the beautiful elk and hear from Rawley Cogan about the Center and its activities.   A great time was enjoyed by everyone! Over 150 ladies attended. 

Women Who Care is in its seventh year. At this meeting they gave $24,000 to 7 agencies, that brings there total to $128,200 being given back to local community non-profits who provide programs that enhance the lives of women and their families since their inception.

The awarded grants went to:

  • Community Nurses for 15 automatic medication dispensers
  • ECCOTA – matching funds to support two AIE residencies
  • Oak Manor – appliances for an accessible home
  • Ridgway Free Library – Maker station with Legos for children’s programs
  • St. Marys Boys and Girls Club – Creative Corner
  • Wilcox Public Library – New public access computers, and other computers for circulation desk and director’s office.
  • Johnsonburg Knothole Association – Repairs to damaged field

About the Picture:

Pictured in sitting left to right: Linda White and Jackie Lundy from ECCOTA, and Kayleen Porter from Community Nurse;

Second row left to right:
Barb DePonceau from Wilcox Library, Britney FinGado from St. Marys Boys and Girls Club, Scarlette Pociask of the Ridegway Free Library Association, Debbie Fehrenbach of Oak Manor and Scott Cherry from the Johnsonburg Knothole/ Little League.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS

STEM Education Fund Distributes $100,000!

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Recently representatives from local county schools received $100,000 of grant funding for STEM education in their Middle School class rooms. The STEM Education Fund is a donor advised fund held and administered by the Elk County Community Foundation (ECCF). This initial grant of $25,000 for each school will provide them with moneys that will allow them to enhance or create a STEM lab in their middle schools. A group of donors represented at the meeting by Tom Jesberger as chairman of the advisor committee reviewed the applications and recommended the award to each district and the catholic school system. The committee was impressed by the dedications staff and teachers who took the time to evaluate their school’s needs and request the equipment and tools that would best impact their students.

The STEM fund, has been established by Mr. Arlan Clayton from Sarasota Florida. Clayton has been involved with the STEM program through the Gulf Coast Community Foundation in Florida, and had contacted the Elk County Community Foundation over a year ago to inquire about starting this STEM Education Fund in Elk County. He operated a successful manufacturing business in our community and “wanted to provide meaningful educational assistance in the communities where he had operated his businesses” In addition, Tom Jesberger, former owner of Abbot Furnace Company, took an interest in the project and has spear headed working with the schools, as wells as making a donation to the new Fund. This past spring the local schools were approached and given the opportunity to submit a grant application for the inaugural grant.

Currently, the Ridgway Area School District (RASD) is using a Science curriculum entitled Interactive Science. The curriculum does foster an interactive approach but lacks the needed integration of science into to other academic areas. The current offerings do not really infuse the engineering and math components at a high enough level to meet the needs of the true STEM piece. The ultimate goal for RASD is to help students apply education to real world problem solving, particularly in a team environment. Obviously a lab space would be more conducive to the success that goal. Plans are to equip a room with work station type tables and chairs, along with computers/mobile devices, smartboards and white boards. Unit curricular purchased for the program will be those that match the current topics in education. The ideal model would be one that allows the infrastructure hardware to be the backbone of the lab, while allowing for a variety of topics and units that students/groups could choose from in order to create intrinsic motivation. The design contains all necessary equipment, furniture, and necessities for a long term effective STEM environment.

Johnsonburg Area School District current curriculum for 7th and 8th grade science utilized the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s ScienceFusion series, which is designed for building inquiry and STEM skills. Their need has been a lab which would allow for more student collaboration and exploration. The focus of JASD project centers around providing such STEM lab which would foster these activities. The district realizes the jobs of tomorrow require not only knowledge, but the ability to work effectively in teams. These lab/work station would provide the environment to meet the needs of the student while helping them apply knowledge to solve complex problems. They plan to use their funding to create a STEM lab in the JR/SR High Building. The STEM lab will be scheduled to ensure that 7th and 8th grade classes will have access to it daily. Their classroom calls for the creation of five student workstations where teams of students can collaborate and utilize mobile handheld units, probes, and touchscreen all-in-one computers. The design is modeled after the STEMSmart classrooms of Sarasota Public Schools. These STEMSmart Tech Active classrooms are where our donor Arlan Clayton first experienced STEM programing and brought the funding to our community. Their plan is to transform the Jr. High science courses into the interactive collaborative models needed to train and excite the students for success in the STEM fields.

In 1998 St. Marys Area School District (SMASD) completed and expansive technology initiative that converted its wood shop to a technology lab with similar principles to STEM labs. This has been a separate curriculum that each student is 6th, 7th, and 8th grade takes daily for one quarter of the school year. It has been abundantly clear that students find the Technology Education courses motivating and engaging. The middle school technology lab is an excellent resource and is built as a separate course. It is also recognized that the they must pursue integration of STEM across subject areas versus a separate course/class. From the perspective of teacher and administrators, this is not an add or increase of topics to cover, it is a question of how we learn and teach in terms of strategies and transformative tools. The district is planning to integrate STEM tools in three middle school science labs for 20016-17 school year. Two rooms were originally constructed as science labs while the third is a regular classroom. They are redesigning these labs to support them with sustainable STEM tools. The lab locations would provide flexibility for use by other disciplines as well. The classroom configuration will include mobile lab tables, chairs and white boards along with computers, an audio system and hand held devices for students. SMASD administration has committed additional dollars to this upgrade and will provide the professional development and support to ensure the program’s success.  

Elk County Catholic School System has had an ongoing commitment to STEM at the St. Marys Catholic Middle School(SMCMS) and Elk County Catholic High School(ECCHS). In the mid 2000’s a six station science lab was installed in the middle school and has since been moved and re-installed at their new location on Maurus St. In all middle school science courses an emphasis has been placed on hands-on instruction. The plans for this grant would be to focus on creating another lab style classroom and acquire some additional technology that will support the STEM programs. Within that includes additional devices, apps and equipment used with the educational program. This second lab will have a flexible furniture where the space can be configured for instruction or lab activities. The Technology they plan to use will enhance and compliment the types of programs already used within the school system, making it an easy transition for staff and student. Handheld hardware with new software and apps will support the educational standards in science, technology, engineer and math that is required and will foster problem solving, innovative thinking, communications, productive teamwork and decision making.

Pictured are left to right:Bob Rocco of RASD; Tom Jesberger STEM Education Fund; Paula Fritz Eddy, Executive Director of the ECCF; Dennis Crotzer, JASD; Dr. Brian Toth, SMASD and Sam MacDonald, ECCSS.