SELCO Community Credit Union, through its annual SPARK! Creative Learning Grants program, has awarded more than $42,000 to 47 educators across Oregon. The program, which provides funding for innovative educational and extracurricular projects, provides grants of as much as $1,000 to K-12 educators across the 27 Oregon counties that SELCO serves.
The SPARK! program has long supported teachers who have creative classroom ideas but lack the funds to get those projects off the ground. This year’s program was specifically aimed at helping educators meet the unexpected and evolving challenges of the 2020-21 school year. In all, 38 Oregon schools are represented among 47 diverse programs. The 2020-21 grant projects include a philanthropy project in Gold Hill, a virtual reality art program in Culver and an interactive learning space to explore the lifecycle of salmon and trout in Gervais.
Twenty educators from 13 Central Oregon schools were among this year’s grant recipients. The 2020-21 Central Oregon recipients are:
- Book Clubs — Nikki Baird, Bend High School, Bend
- Raspberry Pi for Home Coding — Don Carter, Bend High School, Bend
- Emergency Medical Technician Casualty Simulation Kit — Heather Johnson, Bend Tech Academy at Marshall High School, Bend
- LIDS: Fundraising through Hat Making — Kelly Peters, Bend Tech Academy at Marshall High, Bend
- Vocab for All — Scott Meredith, Summit High School, Bend
- Ukes for Youth — Kathy Woodford, Elk Meadow Elementary School, Bend
- Culver Virtual Reality Art — Jill Chapman, Culver Middle School, Culver
- Flipping the Narrative: Marginalized Populations in Ancient History — Jessica Colburn, La Pine Middle School, La Pine
- Winter Vocational Training for Students with Developmental & Intellectual Disabilities — Cari Fike, La Pine High School, La Pine
- Hawks Country Green House for Kids with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities — Ken Thorp, La Pine High School, La Pine
- Biotechnology for the Win! — Kathleen Glogau, Madras High School , Madras
- Madras Littles’ Outdoor Community — Julie Mitchell, Madras High School, Madras
- Cardio Drum Fitness — Melanie Kimple, Vern Patrick Elementary School, Redmond
The SELCO selection committee identified the grant recipients from among 118 applicants. “The selection committee was heartened by all the unique and creative projects that educators designed to help their students meet the challenges of this year like no other,” said Craig Carpenter, SELCO’s senior vice president of lending and business solutions. “SELCO remains committed, through SPARK! and other programs, to ensure those educators can overcome a lack of funding for a great idea. It’s never been more imperative to find fresh ways of reaching students, and we’re eager to support educators’ efforts.”
The committee’s goal is to fund innovative projects that will have the largest-possible impact on students and the greatest opportunity to leave a lasting impression.
“Adapting to distance learning has been challenging, but I know it has made me a better teacher,” said Nikki Baird, a teacher at Bend High School who was awarded SPARK! funding to help facilitate her ongoing book clubs. “The biggest challenge, for valid reasons, is student engagement. Some students’ stories are really tragic, and simply accessing school is difficult right now. My goal is to teach novels with themes relevant to teens in order to foster student interest and participation. I’m so grateful to be able to use this grant money to purchase new titles for book clubs and am looking forward to creating curriculum that students will enjoy and that will hopefully make them feel invested in my class.”
For more information on SELCO’s SPARK! Creative Learning Grants, or to follow the progress of some of the grant winners, visit selco.org/spark.
