Harrison Educational Foundation Hosts Outing October 2

The Harrison Educational Foundation (HEF) will be holding their annual “Drive For Education” event on October 2 at Brae Burn Country Club. This year the Foundation will be honoring Jessica Riesel for her longstanding dedication to the students of Harrison through her distinguished service in leadership roles in the Harrison School District and the wider Harrison community.

For over twenty years, the Harrison Educational Foundation has funded hundreds of curriculum enrichment grants, both large and small, with consistent impact. To learn more about the HEF “Drive For Education”, the initiatives it supports, and information on this year's outing, please visit their website at www.harrisoned.org.

As an example of a large scale grant, the Foundation is excited to partner with the District on the renovation of the LMK auditorium. The full scale renovation of the auditorium is part of the Bond Improvements Initiative that was passed last fall. The Foundation will be assisting the District with a $50,000 grant to fund the enhancement of the lighting and sound systems in the LMK auditorium.

“The grant is intended to enhance the District’s ability to provide rigorous, dynamic, and student-friendly sound and lighting equipment in order to support students in the development of their technical theater knowledge base and skills,” said Harrison Educational Chair Patti Rube. “The Foundation hopes the grant will further opportunities to provide substantive student engagement in the newly renovated space.”

Other smaller grants awarded to the District from HEF this year were:

• Purchase of 8 Nikon cameras for Digital Photography at Harrison High School. This grant will help students expand their photographic literacy beyond IPads and IPhone cameras.
• A grant supporting the first phase of teacher training for the implementation of the IB Middle Years Program at LMK. a grant to cover the costs of Fall and Spring College tours for high school students.
• Purchase of 90 pairs of Virtual reality goggles at LMK. These goggles will provide students the opportunity to interact with numerous processes and locations around the globe via their smart phones.
• A grant for an Orchestra program for grades 4 through 12 focusing on American Folk and Fiddle Music. A Professional Guest Clinician will be teaching students techniques and approaches to instrumental performance that are unique to these genres of music.
• Assistance to the District in covering the cost of Chromebooks for the students in grade 5 throughout the District.
• A grant to purchase “Bare Books” for each elementary student in our district to publish an independent writing piece.
• A grant to purchase DreamBox Learning online math software program to be piloted by the 2nd grade students of Preston Elementary School.