ATMC awards $25,000 in community grants for education

ATMC awarded $25,000 in grant funds to 17 educators and community organizations serving Brunswick County students and residents and honored them with a reception on Nov. 12 at ATMC’s corporate headquarters in Shallotte.

Representatives from each school talked about the programs for which the grant funds are earmarked and how these grants will positively impact area students. Checks were disbursed for Smart Connections, the educational component of the cooperative’s grant program.

Those receiving funding were:

Bolivia Elementary School (Amy Frink): Project Discovery—a project to create a science room to be used by all students, including the special education population.

Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary School (Emma-Lou Edwards): Watch, Read, Learn—an interactive literacy program that pairs classic fiction video storybooks with related nonfiction eBooks, improving vocabulary and comprehension skills.

Supply Elementary School (Heather Woody): World Travelers—a program to take the students on virtual field trips around the globe and encourage international networking with other students via Web cams and e-mail.

Cedar Grove Middle School (Martin Callendar): Acquiring Music to Start Our Band Program—a project to build a library of sheet music for a new band program.

Cedar Grove Middle School (Toby Kasell): Physical Education/Athletic Storage—to purchase units of storage for physical education and athletic equipment.

Cedar Grove Middle School (Shelly Cheers): Print and Provide—to purchase a color printer for use by office and staff members to facilitate various types of communication.

Cedar Grove Middle School (Angela Kathryn Stephens): World Music Drumming Project—a program to bring world music into the school, teach African and Latin American culture and build communications skills.

Cedar Grove Middle School (Dale Shaw): Readers in the Real World—to build a library of young adolescent novels with which middle school students can identify.

Leland Middle School (Meggen Calderwood): Assessment Kit for Reading Levels for Instruction/Classroom Library—a program to enable teachers to assess capabilities and reading levels of each student and provide books for students as well.

Shallotte Middle School (Deputy John Rogers with Lance Corporal Lillian Cosentino): Keeping Every Youth Successful (KEYS)—a drug and violence reduction program that strives to instill the core values of Discipline, Knowledge and Pride adopted by the military.

Waccamaw Elementary School (Barbara Evans): Caught Being Good—a program to reward students who exhibit good behavior and are positive role models for their peers.

South Brunswick High School (Jennifer Biser): Engaging Students With Dry Erase—to equip additional classrooms with dry-erase boards and markers to assist students with social studies projects.

West Brunswick High School (Patricia Christy): Calculator Loan Program—to expand the library of graphing calculators that are loaned to students overnight for use at home.

West Brunswick High School (Ashley Speckman and students Julianne Donoghue, Jessica Gruber and Taylor Madison): The Giving Tree—to place trees around the community that will hold bookmarks labeled with names of children in need of books at Supply Elementary School.

West Brunswick High School (Robert Watkins): The Pressure is On—to provide for a nitrogen tire inflation system for the automotive program that will result in better fuel economy and increased safety.

Friends of the Library (Sheila Umbricht): Operation Homework Help—to expand library of math, science, history, geography, social science and biography collection to help students in grades 4-12 with their homework and special projects.

Ocean Isle Museum Foundation/Ingram Planetarium (Scott Kucera and Mark Jankowski): Space Science in the Hands of Students—a program allowing students creative use of computer software to present science projects in the classroom or at the 40-foot dome in the planetarium.

Allen Russ, ATMC CEO/general manager, commended the recipients on their efforts to provide quality education in Brunswick County.

“What you do has a lasting impact on everyone whose lives you touch. I can still remember teachers from my grade school years and the many positive ways they influenced me throughout my life. You are making a difference, and ATMC salutes you for your creativity, your perseverance and your dedication to our children and this community,” Russ said.

ATMC began awarding community and education grants in 2006. To date, close to 100 local community organizations and educators have received grants totaling $170,000.