Pictured: Carol Silvey with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, far left; fourth grade teacher Lacy Reynolds; and far right, school principal Jennifer Douglas and Kelly Wardle. They are pictured with students from Mrs. Reynolds’s fourth grade class at a recent school assembly.

A primary objective of the community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Ozarks Teacher Corps is to introduce members to opportunities for garnering philanthropic resources for rural schools. Drury University participant Kelly Wardle, of Willow Springs, has taken advantage of this opportunity.

Wardle’s knowledge paid dividends recently when Carol Silvey, senior associate for advancement with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, presented a $2,000 Student Conservation Grant to Willow Springs Elementary School. Wardle learned about the grant opportunity through the Ozarks Teacher Corps and had the opportunity to visit several rural schools and see the impact such grants have made. Because only certified teachers are eligible to apply for the grant, and Wardle is currently a student teacher, Kelly partnered with Willow Springs fourth-grade teacher Lacy Reynolds. The grant paperwork was filled out with the help of Reynolds’ fourth-grade class.

The $2,000 in funds will go toward improvements to the outdoor classroom at the elementary school, adding a conservation area. It will include picnic tables, sensory tables, a sand area and a small orchard with six to eight apple trees and four pear trees. Produce from the school’s orchards will be sold at the annual community festival. The project will also builds a new partnership between the Willow Springs School Foundation and the Willow Springs Art Council.

The students of Willow Springs Elementary School will be at the heart of the project. Wardle said students will be taste-testing apples to decide which trees would be best. Once they decide on the trees, they will receive information on raising apple and pear trees from John Avery Jr. with the Missouri State University Fruit Experiment Station in Mountain Grove. The trees will be planted this spring.

The Student Conservation Grants are funded through the Community Foundation of the Ozarks’ Rural Schools Conservation Fund and the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation Grant Fund. Willow Springs is a member of the CFO’s Rural Schools Partnership, which focuses on sustaining rural schools as anchors of their communities

We are in the midst of what is often the called the “Giving Season.” December and the holidays often bring out the best in people’s philanthropic tendencies (altruism and tax breaks are behind this seasonal phenomenon!). It is important for your organization to take advantage of this by sending out solicitations to support your school foundation or community foundation.

A very good tool for giving is the IRA Rollover opportunity, available to donors age 70-and-a-half and older, who have an IRA account. Eligible donors may donate up to $100,000 annually from their IRA to any charitable organization. Small gifts are permissible, too; and you should note that many people have the ability to make gifts in the $500 to $5,000 range from their IRAs.

Click here to download a PDF of our helpful IRA Rollover brochure.

Click here for some more specifics on IRA rollovers, the current provisions for which are effective through December 31, 2011.

Also, with December 31 fast approaching, many donors are making contributions to school foundations, funds or favorite agencies before the end of the calendar year. If you choose to contribute to a fund managed by CFO, you can do so online via our donations portal (PLEASE LIST THE NAME OF YOUR FUND OR AGENCY IN THE DESCRIPTION FIELD WHEN YOU GET TO IT), or you can call our offices at (417) 864-6199. If you choose to mail a check to CFO (P.O. Box 8960, Springfield MO, 65801), be advised that it must be POSTMARKED no later than December 31, 2011.

Bolivar teachers Kayla King, Janet Tweedy and Joelle Smith received a Fund for Teachers Fellowship to attend an education conference in Orlando, Fla.

Editors Note:  This is the second of two features on Rural Schools Partnership educators who applied for and received funding from the Fund for Teachers Fellows Program in conjunction with The Rural School and Community Trust.  Only eleven awards were made to rural teachers nationally, and we are proud that two were in the Missouri Ozarks.  This year’s Fellows are Bolivar Primary teachers Kayla King, Joelle Smith, and Janet Tweedy; and Ste. Genevieve Valle Catholic Grade School’s Donna Herzog, who is featured below.

Bolivar Primary School teachers Kayla King, Janet Tweedy and Joelle Smith spent part of their summer vacations attending a week-long cooperative learning conference in Orlando, Fla., through one of 11 national Fund for Teachers Fellowships awarded for 2011.

The three first- and second-grade teachers applied for Fund for Teachers fellowships in hopes of enhancing their ability to apply cooperative learning in their classrooms and to build content into cooperative learning structures they had developed.

Janet Tweedy said the three teachers were very excited to receive one of the 11 fellowships awarded to teachers from rural communities by the Rural School and Community Trust, working in conjunction with the Rural Schools Partnership program of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. The program is designed to encourage rural teachers to explore summertime opportunities that will bring learning to life for their students.

The Bolivar trio used the $10,000 award to attend a week-long cooperative learning conference in Orlando in July.  A special experience for the teachers was the opportunity to work with internationally renowned cooperative learning experts Spencer and Laura Kagan. Read the rest of this entry »