The Quitman Lake Country Charitable Foundation, through the newly formed Quitman ISD Educational Fund, recently announced their first grant awards to QISD faculty on Thursday, March 21.  Eight QISD faculty members received grants totaling almost $6,000. 

Established three years ago, the QISD educational fund received its first contribution from Perdue Brandon, attorneys at law, which has continued to contribute to the fund each year. Their donations, along with many private donations, led to the organization having the ability to award grants this year.

Former superintendent and current Quitman Lake Country Charitable Foundation Director Rhonda Turner played a big role in the establishment of the educational fund and said that they hope to “provide grants annually to supplement innovative projects that impact student success.”

Per the Lake Country Charitable Foundation’s website, the Quitman ISD Educational Fund is “designated for supporting, enhancing and promoting excellent education opportunities, programs and incentives for students and teachers of Quitman ISD that are not funded by tax dollars.” The fund hopes that supporting costs for supplemental programs and materials will aid in fostering students intellectually, emotionally and physically. 

The first set of grants was distributed among all three campuses. At the elementary school, Ketzie DeGorostiza received $800 to purchase Lego Education Robotics. Also, Robin Tanner, Dominque Faulkner, Cammie Hicks, Kristyn Graves and Amy Prather, received $1,000 to buy a Phonemic Awareness - Phonics Toolkit, and Kelly Chrismer received $534 to go toward the purchase of “The Vital Classroom Library.”

At the junior high campus, Connie Simon and Angela Hannon received $476 to purchase flexible seating for their special education classroom. Jennifer Stewart, Lana Clark, Bethany O’Daniel, Ashley Wedeking, Jennifer Bailey and Angela Hannon received $825 to purchase Hi-Lo Book Buckets for their classrooms. 

At Quitman High School, Jennifer Smith and Terri Dievendorf received $2,000 toward the purchase of “Kindling a Love for Literacy.” This purchase is a class set of Kindles that are meant to provide students access to high interest level novels.

The Quitman Education Fund is housed under the Lake Country Charitable Foundation’s umbrella of charities benefiting the Quitman community. The Education Fund directors hope to host a series of fundraisers soon so they can continue to fund more projects next year.