JOYCE — While Crescent School District staff and personnel consider how to balance the budget, the Joyce Community Education Foundation provides books, music and other help to fill some gaps.
The foundation uses donated money for mini-grants, such as one that purchased books for take-home reading for first-graders and middle school students.
Another project the foundation funded is the Reading Store, in which students can trade points acquired for reading for such school items as pencils, binders and spirit wear.
It also equipped the band room, and community volunteers and Crescent faculty are providing instruction for an after-school program for high school students.
Karen Farris, foundation secretary, said the group depends primarily on donations and that members anticipate more requests for grants as the school budget gets tighter.
The most recent donation was $3,000 from the Ben and Myrtle Walkling Memorial Trust this month, the foundation said.
“We have also had very generation donations in the past from the Benjamin N. Phillips Memorial Fund and the Albert Haller Foundation,” Farris said.
“With school financial resources stretched tight, the JCEF is truly appreciative of the generous contributions from local foundations and donors,” Farris said in a statement.
“A thriving school fosters an environment of learning, growth and success that are so vital in a climate of economic struggle.
“The JCEF promotes community volunteerism, which is just one more way of stretching financial resources.”
For more information, visit the foundation’s Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/3ppvl5s or phone Farris at 360-928-9700.
