Grant Stories

Enlai Wu, a junior at Valley Christian, uses the new griddle to prepare tortillas.

Celebrate Education, an annual event that honors the educators, administrators and volunteers in our schools, will take place on March 19 at 4:30 p.m. at the Oshkosh Convention Center.

One of last year’s grant recipients was Valley Christian School to purchase equipment for their Home Economics class. The new equipment has allowed students to create more complicated recipes and to work with larger class sizes. One piece of equipment purchased was a stand mixer, which has been especially helpful with the school’s tortilla fundraiser.

“I have been doing a few tortilla sales a year with students for several years now. However, I always had to bring my own mixer, rolling pins and skillets. The new equipment makes it much more convenient to set up for the sales”, says Jeanne Gutierrez, teacher at Valley Christian.

The tortilla sales have taught students to plan a fundraising activity, gather orders, purchase supplies, follow directions and produce a quality product for their customers. Most of the sales benefit various student activities, but they have also given the students a vision to raise money for non-profits or other causes.

“One of the first tortilla sales that I ever did was with students to raise money for a family whose daughter had just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Students rolled over 1,000 tortillas that day and had so much fun helping someone else”, says Gutierrez.

Grants like this, and many others, will be showcased at this year’s Celebrate Education, an annual event hosted by the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation in partnership with the Mid-Morning Kiwanis Club of Oshkosh, Oshkosh Chamber of Commerce, Wisconsin Public Service Foundation, Oshkosh Area School District and the UWO College of Education and Human Services. This year’s Celebrate Education will be at the Oshkosh Convention Center on March 19, 2018 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Register online and learn about grants awarded in the past at oshkoshareacf.org/news-events/celebrate-education/ or call 920-426-3993 by March 16.