More Top Picks Best Reading Pens For Adults With Dyslexia
player ready...With 500 volunteers and a fundraising track record totaling more than $288,000 over the past nine years, the Frankfort PTA was ready to take on the world this year–and it did.
A mountain of maps, globes and atlases for classrooms at District 157C’s Grand Prairie, Chelsea and Hickory Creek Middle Schools were piled up in the Grand Prairie gym last week, ready to be sorted.
“This is over $22,000 worth of material–and that’s with a discount,” said Grand Prairie Principal John White, who was gearing up one day last week to divvy up the goodies.
The contribution didn’t come too soon. “We have some globes that go back to the late 1960s,” White said. But after 30 years of political map changes, the best that can be said for them, according to White, is “they work, they go ’round.”
All of the district’s 1st- through 5th-grade classes will get up-to-date globes and wall maps, along with atlases and social studies compact discs.
The bonanza for social studies teachers came after a banner fundraising year for the Frankfort PTA, according to outgoing president Betsy Whittingham. “This year we’re over $55,000 (in schools donations),” thanks to a lot of parent cooperation and a few extra events, such as a recent fashion show, a plant sale and coupon book sales, she said.
Other purchases on the agenda include a piano for Hickory Creek Middle School, gym equipment for Grand Prairie and Chelsea Schools, along with computer equipment and cameras to photograph student activities.
The maps and globes project was especially satisfying “because it was for all the children in the district,” Whittingham said.
Fundraising efforts “evolved over the years from bake sales to bigger events,” said Nancy Neuzil, public relations coordinator for the school district.
Besides buying equipment, the PTA sponsors educational programs, such as cultural arts presentations, a book fair and a Frankfort historical presentation.
PTA members also help the schools by donating their time, district officials said.
“They’re fantastic,” district business manager Ernie Tonelli said.