More than $38,000 committed for programs
The Garrison Children’s Education Fund (GCEF) raised $52,500 during the 2015-16 school year through a golf marathon, fall appeal, Winter Garden Ladies’ Night and the annual Spring Thaw to support academic, artistic and athletic activities at the Garrison School. In the past three years, fundraising has more than doubled, with 150 families contributing this past school year.
During the school year, GCEF awarded nearly $38,000 in grants to support 20 programs, including for:
- Imagination Playground, a 105-piece big block set designed for play in large indoor or outdoor spaces that includes bricks, cylinders and parts that suggest motion or connectivity.
- A contribution to partly cover the cost of bringing the Society of Educational Arts’ production of Dia de los Muertos to the school to explore the Mexican tradition of honoring the memory of past family members and ancestors.
- Hiring a dance instructor, Belle Ritter, to teach the eight-graders swing dance as part of their production of Much Ado About Anything.
- Three display cases for a student-created museum that provide students with an opportunity to research the school history.
- A reduced-rate Kaplan SAT prep course for high school students in partnership with the Friends of the Desmond-Fish Library.
- Partnering with the Garrison School PTA to hire instructors for after-school programs such as Beacon Music Factory ukulele, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival theatre classes and K-2 art classes.
In addition to these new programs, GCEF grants also continued its funding of the Hudson Valley Seed’s educational school garden, an art program with the Garrison Art Center, a Revolutionary War/Colonial Day Living History Reenactment, the jazz and percussion ensembles, a Clearwater Sloop sail and visits to the Philadelphia Constitution Convention Center, the Challenger Space Center and Constitution Marsh.
GCEF invites grant proposals from Garrison teachers, administrators and parents. For more information, visit gcef.net.
