NEED Announces 2018 Grant Recipients

Presented at the Norton School Committee Meeting,
Monday, February 5th 6:30pm

Norton Embracing Educational Development (NEED) has gone through a great many changes since June. We have four new board members, a new logo, a new website and new timing for our grant cycle. We have been fortunate that The Martial Arts Connection, (T.M.A.C.), located here in Norton, and their charity, T.M.A.C. Gives Back, has been fundraising for us! This year we did a few new fundraisers, such as the Savers FunDrive, Dream Dinners and the Bully Awareness Seminar … all through T.M.A.C. Gives Back, as well as the Saving Christmas Movie Premiere which was a very successful fundraiser brought to us by the Brunault Family. Horizon Beverage donated $2500 to our grant fund this year as well!

We decided that this year the time was right to move the grant process up to January/February so that teachers could implement their grants during the same school year in which they requested them. In the past, grants were awarded in June and not implemented until the following September. Next year we are hoping to move the grant process up even earlier, in October, to enable teachers to have more time to implement their projects with their current students.

This year NEED received 12 grant requests totaling almost $14,000.00. Today we would like to acknowledge all of the grant recipients.

Our first grant recipient is Monica Allen from the JCS. Monica is receiving partial funding from NEED and partial funding from the JCS SPO for STEM kits for Project Early. Thank you JCS SPO for your generosity in helping to fund Monica’s grant.

Our next set of grant recipients are from the Yelle School. We would like to thank the Yelle PTO for offering to fund half of all of the Yelle’s grants!

Susan Bergstrom, Occupational Therapist, received a fully funded grant for flexible seating, which includes a stand up desk, adjustable height standing desks, 2 hokki stools, and 2 bouncy bands.
Cathy Correira received a fully funded grant for a 5th grade “pilot project” for online learning subscriptions called “Blended Learning”.

Jen Carline and Melissa Quigley, 4th-5th grade self contained looping teachers, are receiving a fully funded grant for another “pilot project” for Loop Into Learning which is subscriptions to IXL, Flocabulary, JogNog and Quizlet to continue their 4th grade student’s online academic learning into next year.

Our next set of grant recipients are from Norton Middle School. We would like to thank the NMS Parent Board for offering to fund half of all of the Middle School grants!

Jen Skowronek received a fully funded grant for 2 iPads to be used in her 7th grade Academics in Action ELA classroom for video creation, creative expression and other spontaneous uses coinciding with lessons.

Tanya Benoit received a fully funded grant for 12 Fitdesks to enable her 6th graders to stand/move about more easily in science class while protecting their Chromebooks from experiments.

Barbara Nado received a fully funded grant for Google Cardboard Virtual Reality goggles with iPods to enhance the learning experiences in her 6th grade social studies classroom.

Christine Scilingo and Cheryl Mulligan received a fully funded grant for flexible seating to be shared in their 6 Purple Science and Social Studies classrooms. The furniture includes adjustable laptop bed tables, magnetic dry erase lap boards, self stand desk kits, and a whiteboard table.

Michele Baeta received a fully funded grant for portable adjustable laptop tables for the Language Based and GRIT programs. Currently there are 38 students total in those programs which span all teams and all grades 6th-8th.

Our last two grant recipients are from Norton High School.
Aaron Sumner has received partial funding for his portable Hi Pod Camera Tower to film events at the High School or events throughout the district. Aaron will be applying for the other half of the necessary grant funding through Norton Media Center’s May grant cycle.

Rachel Pilotte has received full funding for a Flashforge 3D printer to be used in the Business and Technology classes at the high school.

Thank you to everyone who applied to grants this year. All of the requests were such great ideas and we are certain that all of the students will be positively impacted.

Thank you also to the JCS, Yelle and Middle School parent boards for their generosity in helping us to fund these innovative and creative grant requests. With less time to fundraise this year, we were struggling to figure out a way to fund all of them. We truly could not have funded all of these grants if it weren’t for their help.

All grant recipients will be listed on our website, https://www.nortonneed.org/gra...
Thank you!
Karen LaCamera, President
Shawna Powers, Vice President
Beth Blakeley, Secretary
Gina Heaney, Treasurer
Karen Giovanoni, Director
Kate Conway, Director
Tamah Vest, Director

*Shown in the photo: Grant Recipient Jen Carline (HAY), NEED Secretary Beth Blakeley, NEED Director Karen Giovanoni, Grant Recipient Barbara Nado (NMS), Grant Recipient Michele Baeta (NMS), NEED President Karen LaCamera, Grant Recipient Aaron Sumner (NHS), Grant Recipient Rachel Pilotte (NHS) and Grant Recipient Cathy Correira (HAY)