Foundation raising cash for schools
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The South Lyon County Education Foundation has begun a campaign to boosts its assets to help students in Hartford, Neosho Rapids and Olpe schools.
Superintendent Mike Argabright said the foundation’s goal is to increase the number of annual scholarships it can provide to district students, as well as finance projects that will be chosen for each school. Recommendations have been made for those projects by the South Lyon County Board of Education, and will be selected soon by the foundation’s board of trustees. In addition to Argabright, the trustees are Pat Wiederholt, Susan Menke, Dan Schneider and Debbie Redeker.
Among the projects the foundation already has helped finance are new library resources, football field sprinkler system and reseeding, a weight room project, scholarships, technology equipment and defibrillators at each school site, according to information from Redeker.
The foundation makes a difference in what the district is able to do for the students and, as a result, for the teachers and staff.
“We work on scholarships and bigger projects that the communities are kind of asking about and the board can’t take care of, and see if there’s people out there that want to help,” Argabright said.
Redeker said donors may contribute in many ways, including cash, securities, personal or real property, and life insurance, memorials and several types of charitable trusts, among others.
“It’s very flexible,” Argabright said. “It’s what the people want to do. And quite frankly, it’s not the foundation that even decides. It’s usually the schools.”
Some donors have set up scholarships for students who want to study specific subjects, such as music, education and engineering.
Donors may set up named scholarships to honor family or friends, and may choose their own criteria to select recipients. If they wish, they may use their own applications and name recipients, or can allow the foundation and individual schools to make the choices.
“They can donate for any and everything,” Argabright said. “A lot of people like to designate so they know what it’s going towards.”
Contributions to the foundation are tax-deductible. More information may be had by calling any board member, checking the district Web site at www.usd252.org, or calling the district office, (620) 392-5519.