November 9, 2005
Grant awards in the cards
ACE Fund gives out $18,660 in grants to school programs
By
Herald staff writer
What's better than an evening of private shopping and fine foods - an evening of private shopping and fine foods that supports the local educational community.
More than 250 people attended the ACE Night gathering at Marshall Fields on Sunday, featuring gourmet food, local wine, raffle prizes, shopping and a fashion show - all to benefit the Assisting Children's Education Fund.
The ACE Fund of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation supports a variety of programs to help students and teachers develop and implement innovative ideas that are student focused, curriculum based and promote academic excellence in Traverse City Area Public Schools. This year the foundation awarded $18,660 in grants to area educators.
"There is never enough money for classroom teachers to do what they want to do. This gives them a way to buy things that they would never get otherwise," said Jean Howard, who has been on the ACE Fund board since its inception 10 years ago.
Howard, along with her fellow board members, sift through some 50-80 grant applications each year to find 15 or so that are especially intriguing. More than $200,000 has been awarded to innovative applicants over the past 10 years.
This year's winners include Daniel Rosenburg, a world geography teacher at Traverse City West Senior High. Rosenburg's grant award purchased 14 Global Position System units, that are available to all of West Senior High's teaching staff.
"I felt like the students really needed to use some of the technology that cartographers and geologists actually use," Rosenburg said.
"I'm really hoping that some of the other teachers will find a way to fit using the GPS into their classroom. There are a lot of potential uses for them."
Fellow grant winner, Shannon LaFray, is looking forward to using new hands-on math materials with her students at Traverse Heights Elementary.
"It was nice to get the funding for new things and also for everyday things that need to be replaced like calculators," LaFray said.