Darlington County teachers surprised with grant money
Darlington High School principal Cortney Gehrke, DHS teacher Terry Langley-Dubose and Andrea Pulling of the Darlington County Education Foundation. Photo by Samantha LyleS
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
As the school year wound down, several Darlington County School District teachers received surprises last week – grant money to help fund special projects in the fall.
Andrea Pulling of the non-profit Darlington County Education Foundation visited teachers and delivered the good news that their grant proposals were approved, then presented each lucky applicant with a check. DCEF gave out a total of $8,093 in grants this year. The winning projects are listed below.
— $952 for “Up Close and Personal,” which provided money for all 5th graders to take a field trip to the State Museum. Sarah Kelley was the recipient at West Hartsville Elementary School.
— $500 for “Wiggle While You Work,” which will provide alternative seating to a classroom at North Hartsville Elementary School. Alicia Fontenette was awarded the grant.
— $3,000 for “Reading is Breathing In, Writing is for Breathing Out,” which will provide reading and writing opportunities for all North Hartsville Elementary School students. Author Lester Laminack will be visiting the school and teaching the children valuable instructions in reading and writing. Kristin Nicholson and Michelle Turner were awarded the grant.
Andrea Pulling of the Darlington County Education Foundation, Darlington High School teachers Frank O’Shea and Justin Means and DHS principal Cortney Gehrke. Photo by Samantha LyleS
$535.32 for “We Will Succeed Because We Read” which will purchase classroom books for a a class at Brunson Dargan Elementary School. Kate Wright was awarded the grant.
$493.98 for “Nspire Hearts 4 Whiskers” In addition of students at Mayo High School learning math standards they will see the impact exercise can have on their heart. Sharon Cox was awarded the grant.
$1,861.98 for “Let’s Spread School Spirit” The grant will afford a class at Darlington High School the opportunity to create an enterprise venture. The students will create and make buttons to sell at different sporting events and activities at school. Terry Langley-Dubose was awarded the grant, and she said students will get to design their own buttons.
“We’ll do all the sports teams, and hopefully we will do buttons of the players, too. We can take their pictures and make it into a button, then sell them and make some money!” said Langley-Dubose.
$750 for “Enhancing the T in STEM!” The money will provide more robotics for the club and a 3-D printer. April McPherson was the recipient.
One additional project received funding from an anonymous donor. This $150 donation will help Band teacher Justin Means and Spanish instructor Frank O’Shea procure a steamer and ironing board for the Falcon Closet, which provides clothing for students in need.
“Some of the guys don’t have clothes for school or dress clothes and we help them out with that. We even gave out a couple of suits for prom this year. They can come in and get clothes, but they don’t always have a way to clean them, so that was what we requested in our grant proposal,” said O’Shea.
