Impeccable Timing for Dual Grants Awarded to Middle School

Merrimack Middle School students are in the midst of a fun and exciting experience right now, spending two days at a YMCA sleep-away camp in Alton immersing themselves in hands on curriculum that boosts math and science education.

And thanks to a pair of very well-timed grants that came to the school unexpectedly, Principal Debbie Woelflein said they were able to make camp attainable for all who wanted it.

Woelflein said year after year the teachers and administration at the school, in concert with the Parent Teacher Group at the middle school try to make the outdoor experience affordable to all families.

This year, it seemed more families were in need of assistance than in years past, Woeflein said, and around February and March, they were starting to worry about how they would be able to make it possible for all students to be able to go.

That's when the new owner of what was Caron and Son Mobil contacted the school to say she'd applied for a $500 grant through Exxon Mobil's Educational Alliance Program  to enhance math and science curriculum and Merrimack was chosen to be a recipient.

Woelflein said it was just the answer they were looking for, and then luck struck twice.

Just a day or two later, Craig Caron, who Woelflein said is now managing the Bon Bon Mobil near exit 10 on Daniel Webster Highway, called with the same news.

"We thought surely it must be a mistake," Woelflein said.

But it was no mistake. The two Mobil Stations are part of different franchises and both incidentally applied for this grant on behalf of the middle school.

"It was like manna dropping from the heavens," Woelflein said.

Thanks to the two grants, they were able to pay down some of the expenses to help lower the per student cost of going on the trip.

According to the letter they received about the grant, it is awarded to 175 schools throughout the Northeast, who can use the money for materials, programming, learning tools, lab supplies or educational trips.

In the last 13 years, the Educational Alliance Program has awarded more than $18 million to local schools through Exxon and Mobil retailers.

Camp Mi-Te-Na is an opportunity for students in seventh grade to engage in an educational/environmental experience, where students learn about survival in the wilderness and study the creatures and plant life out in the woods.

They stay in cabins overnight and are there for two and a half days, with the seventh grade visiting in waves. The first wave of students returns home today.

Woelflein said in addition to the grants this year, every year the program gets great support from the PTG and teachers even run fundraisers to help their students out.

"We feel very lucky," Woelflein said of the surprise of the two grants. "We are so thankful."