Westerville Education Foundation

EDUCATION FOUNDATION’S FOURTH ANNUAL MINI-GOLF OUTING OFFERS FAMILY FUN AT REASONABLE PRICE

The Westerville Education Foundation on May 19, 2012, will be holding its Fourth Annual Mini-Golf Fundraiser at the Westerville Mini-Golf & Batting Cages, 450 W. Schrock Rd. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Registration is just $10 per adult and $6 for children age 13 and under. Each participant receives two rounds of golf (one on each of the facility's two courses) and a "goody bag" with contents valued at more than the cost to register. Proceeds from the event support innovative activities and programming in the Westerville City School District through the WEF grants program, which is available to teachers and other district employees.

Nationwide Children's Hospital is the Presenting Partner of this family-oriented event. The day will feature celebrity golfers, mascot appearances, food vendors, magic shows by Nate the Magician, raffle prizes and a silent auction featuring many great items. In addition to providing a coupon for a free beverage and bag of chips to all participants, Jersey Mike’s Subs is sponsoring a hole-in-one contest. Anyone getting a hole-in-one on the designated holes receives a free regular sub and their name will be entered into a drawing for the grand prize of a free catering order for up to 15 people.

For more information about the event or sponsorship opportunities, contact Courtney Wagner at (614) 918-2272. A Registration Form can be downloaded here and a Sponsorship Form can be downloaded here.

Updated:  Click Here for Photos from the Fall Grant Ceremony

The Westerville Education Foundation has announced that eight grants totaling $5,916.87 will be funded as follows:

• $939.80 to Kelly Calhoun, Hawthorne Elementary, for Kindergarten Web 2.0: Blogging in the Kindergarten Classroom. Kindergartners will practice and apply their literacy skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking as they interact with parents, teachers and classroom peers on a weekly basis through a classroom blog. Students will be using dictation software to build on oral language skills as they share ideas about their learning to a real audience, allowing their learning to become more meaningful.
• $1,000 to Chris Doolittle and Bill Wetta for the Walnut Springs Middle School First Lego League Robotics Team. Walnut Springs would like to start an after school robotics team this fall. Students will research, use critical thinking skills, and apply mathematics and problem solving in a creative and collaborative environment. They will explore relevant topics within this year's theme, "Keeping Food Safe." Pupils will research their topics, devise solutions for their real-world problem, learn to program an NXT Robot to complete identified changes provided by the First Lego League Challenge, and share their message/solution with other students and their community.
• $1,000 to Amy Hamrick, Westerville Central High School, for Geocaching for Education. Geocaching is an inquiry-based learning activity using GPS technologies designed to teach higher order thinking skills across the social science, science, mathematics, arts, and English curriculum. It may be used to either build or to assess student understanding. In addition to student exercises, training workshops will be offered for interested teachers to support them in their use of geocashing as a means of engaging students in higher-level critical inquiry.
• $550 to Natalie Hetrick, Whittier Elementary School, for Lap Quilts for the James Cancer Hospital. James Cancer Hospital is Whittier's service learning partnership for the fifth grade. Students and teachers conduct numerous activities throughout the year to raise awareness and support for cancer patients. Pupils will donate their gently used t-shirts to sew into lap quilts which will be adorned with personal messages of encouragement and hope. The children will sew quilts during non-instruction hours at school and present them to patients during the holidays and on significant dates.
• $227.07 to Ali Hickey, Heritage Middle School, for Bubonic Plague: Modern-Day Analysis. The purpose of this experiment is to bring a unit from the past (Medieval Europe) into a context that will be relevant to today's students. This project involves students reading and learning about the impact of the bubonic plague on Europe. Pupils will play the board game "Pandemic," which reveals the impact of contagious diseases on the world. Students play as a team trying to stop four diseases from spreading and possibly becoming a pandemic. After learning about the plague and playing the board games, students will complete a reflection worksheet and engage in a classroom discussion about the impact of disease, sanitation, education and government responsibility.
• $1,000 to Amy Kelly, Robert Frost Elementary School, for iPads for Early Intervention. Kelly teaches K-2 special education in a CD unit. She has several students with diagnosed cerebral palsy who do not have access to the appropriate technology they need to be successful in school. She plans to purchase iPads for the students to download educational apps to practice literacy and math skills at their individual levels. Students have access to three computers, but some have a difficult time even manipulating the mouse because of their poor eye/hand coordination. This grant will allow students to interact in a way that they currently are unable to do because of physical limitations.
• $1,000 to Melinda Reams, Walnut Springs Middle School, for Note That! Using Assistive Technology to Improve Note taking and Academic Access. Students with disabilities will use the Smartpen and Pencasts to relieve the pressure of capturing an entire lesson in only one class period. With the Livescribe pen they will be able to go back and listen to a lesson again instead of having the pressure of hearing it only once in class. Teachers will print guided notes on Livescribe dot matrix paper. Students will then fill in the key words as they take notes with their Smartpen. Later they just touch the paper where they wrote key words and the Smartpen takes them back to the recording of the instruction at that time. Students will be able to upload their notes into computer files to access both the text and the recording, and organize for studying. Files can be shared with students who may have missed that day of instruction.
• $200 for Melissa Roundhouse, Walnut Springs Middle School, for SOS Walnut. Siblings of Support Walnut (or SOS) is a small group for brothers and sisters of children with autism or other disabilities that affect the family and the student's role in the family. The idea for the group originated at the end of the 2010-11 school year from a sixth grader who wanted a place where students could talk with one another about the challenges of having a sibling with a disability, to explore feelings and ways to handle those feelings, and to share information. Group sessions will be held during shared study times at the beginning of the day and will not take away from class time and learning.

Recipients will be recognized at an awards ceremony on December 2nd at 7:30am at the Westerville Public Library.