Green Dragon Foundation Presents Gift of $100,000 to LASD
On the left is LASD President and GDF Advisor, Kathy Swope and on the far right is LASD Superintendent and GDF Advisor, Dr. Mark DiRocco accepting the $100,000 gift from members of the Green Dragon Foundation. They are Board Member Paul Beswick, President Brooks Gronlund, Vice-President Ann Sherpick, Advisor Ken Hall, Executive Director Ann Glock.
Brooks Gronlund, president of the Green Dragon Foundation, presented a check in the amount of $100,000 to Dr. Mark DiRocco, superintendent of the Lewisburg Area School District, at the January 13 school board meeting.
“On behalf of the Green Dragon Foundation Board of Directors, and our 206 donors, I am delighted to make this gift to the Lewisburg Area School District,” Gronlund said. “This gift is the result of year-long fundraising efforts to benefit our students.” In keeping with our mission to provide and direct funding for the realization of educational, cultural, and athletic programs and capital improvement projects for the enrichment and enhancement of the students of the Lewisburg Area School District, the Foundation presented this check in support of a variety of programs.
“Last year, we gave more than $40,000 to the district and this year, we are kicking off 2011 by making a gift of $100,000,” Gronlund said. “We are committed to enhancing and enriching the academic, cultural and athletic experiences of all of our students. Throughout the coming year, the Foundation will continue its efforts to raise much-needed funding.”
According to DiRocco, Foundation support will enable the district to enhance and enrich programs that would not otherwise be possible. During the past year, the district has been revising its planned instruction to meet the state standards for science and technology. The Linntown teachers have been rewriting the science curriculum to reflect these new learning standards. The new curriculum incorporates a great deal of inquiry-based science activities and now with the help of the Green Dragon Foundation, the district can provide the materials for the teachers to collaboratively design their own inquiry-based science units to match the recently revised curriculum.
At the high school, five instructors have been diligently revising the curriculum so all students can successfully meet the state standards, and in the past two years, Lewisburg Area High School students’ scores in science have been among the top 10 in Pennsylvania. Funding provided by the Green Dragon Foundation will begin to purchase the most important advanced scientific equipment for data collection and analysis.
“All students learn differently, and we must provide specially designed instruction to help children succeed in the classroom through a variety of support programs that meet individual needs,” DiRocco said. “Programs such as Listening Post, At-Risk Counseling Services, Student Assistance Programs and others that support the specific individual circumstances that children face will be greatly enhanced with this Green Dragon Foundation support.”
According to Ann Glock, the Green Dragon Foundation Executive Director, major gifts from Lawton Insurance and Wood-Mode enabled two programs to receive funding through the Pennsylvania Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. They are the Advanced Reading through Electronic Readers program at Kelly Elementary School and the On-Line Courses for Advanced Learning program at Lewisburg Area High School. “Additional funding for the On-line program was received from a grant received from the Lindig Lewisburg Foundation Fund,” Glock said. “We are grateful to all of them for helping to make these innovative programs a reality.”
Using electronic readers, Kelly students will be able to read chapters, participate in book talks, design alternate endings, act in a reader’s theater, write summaries and much more, according to Principal Dustin Dalton. “These tools will give us an exciting way to present information to our advanced students and begin to prepare them for the future,” he said.
The LASD is also able to pilot a program titled XCI (Extra-Curricular Intelligence) Improving Student Performance, a Leader Development Program. Foundation funding will bring this innovative program to the school district and help improve student performance on the playing field and stage as well as in the classroom. It focuses on developing the leaders of the extra-curricular programs and by enhancing their skills.
The 21st Century Classroom program will receive additional Foundation funding to provide more technology items for learning support classrooms at Linntown and Kelly.
Individuals or businesses wishing to make a donation can click on the “Make A Donation Today” button or send their donation to The Green Dragon Foundation at 115 Farley Circle, Suite 306, Lewisburg, PA 17837. You can call the Foundation’s office at (570) 522-8433 or email at info@greendragonfoundation.org.