Although summer is winding down, the work of the Cardington-Lincoln Education Foundation (CLEF) is beginning its annual support efforts.
During a recent meeting of the Cardington-Lincoln Board of Education Vicki Kerman, chairperson of CLEF, reported on plans for the 2018-2019 school year.
“As a 501(c)(3) non profit, our mission is to support students in achieving academic excellence,” Kermin said. “We are excited as we approach the first day of school.”
“Last November, CLEF applied to Costco Wholesale’s Fresh Start BackpackProgram and this week we received 470 backpacks, enough to provide a backpack for each student in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade,” she said.
Students will receive personalized bag tags so they can identify their own backpacks.
Also, community businesses and organizations donated $3,000 toward school supplies this year for elementary and intermediate students.
As a result, many items on the student’s supply list will be provided free of charge. These include all composition and spiral bound notebooks, pocket and accordion folders, rulers, scissors, erasers, school glue bottles, flash cards, tab dividers, pencil boxes and pouches and crayons.
The sponsors are Cardington Chiropractic, Pizza Barn, Village Hairsmith, Burr Farms, Cardington Rotary, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 97, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Englefield Oil and the C-L Education Foundation.
“We are so grateful for the generosity of those who understand that student success starts with being prepared,” said Angela Curren, CLEF vice chairperson. “A new backpack and supplies do just that. Our students will be starting the new school year off right.”
For those supplies which are not donated, CLEF also organizes its “School Supply Project,” through which it purchases supplies in bulk and then sells them at cost to the student/parent guardians. “This saves them a lot of time and money,” she said.
Kerman also described its “Adopt a Tree” project. CLEF will make available 15 pre-lit artificial trees to be decorated by students in classrooms and student groups and then will be auctioned during the Holiday Bazaar in November, with all proceeds going to the participating classrooms and groups. For the last two years, nearly $2,000 has been raised through auctioned items.
Finally, CLEF will be sponsoring its Mini-Grant Program for the second year through which teachers and high school students can apply for funds to carry out projects which supplement what is being learned in the classroom or contribute to the community. Last year, five teachers were awarded mini-grants.
