Easthampton Learning Foundation (E.L.F.) P.O. Box 1100 Easthampton, MA 01027   Education Mission Statement Programs Funded Other Resources Please Help Board of Directors Schedule of Meetings Fundraisers Click on your Choice

Education Is:

• Sharing Your Knowledge
• Providing Guidance
• Showing How Things Work
• Speaking With Students
• Lending a Tool
• Giving a Hand
• Contributing Supplies
• Most of all, It's Caring

 

The need is great and since our children are our future, there is no better investment we can make.

Simple skills to us adults seem like unscalable mountains to our children. Showing them how to climb and giving them the tools, is a gift which will last a lifetime

 

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Mission Statement:

Reality of Education...

Like many surrounding cities and towns, Easthampton's schools face instability, cutbacks and financial uncertainty due to changing political and economic trends.

What can we do?

The Easthampton Learning Foundation (E.L.F) was established to foster creativity in learning, through community resources and support.

Together we can enhance our very unique and educationally diverse community. This can be done, both in financial and nonfinancial ways.

The foundation has developed a program to enhance the education system in Easthampton, Learning Enhancement Grants.

Organizational Purpose:

The Easthampton Learning Foundation was begun at a time when our community faced instability, cutbacks and financial insecurity. Because our schools depend on local taxes and/or grants and fundraising, there is need to ensure quality classroom programming.

We are an offshoot of the Easthampton Community Association and became a wholly separate tax-exempt, nonprofit organization in accordance with both federal and state requirements. Over the past years, public and private organizations and businesses, along with community residents, have helped sponsor our efforts to fund innovative, hands-on programs for our children. The focus of our granting policies requires proposals that encompass some aspect of science, math or technology.

Programs We Have Funded:

• 1996 - An Exploration of Accelerated, Kinetic and Harmonic Motion - to the students of Malcom Tumey, Physics Teacher at Easthampton High School - the award centered on a precision timing device and associated experimental materials.
• 1997 - Study of an Ancient Civilization Through the Internet - to the students of Jane A. Nathan, Teacher at White Brook Middle School - this project focused on interdisciplinary studies, encompassing Spanish, geography and math via real-time, on-line communications with scientists and historians at an archaelogical dig.
• 1997 - The Lions Club Donation for 3rd & 4th Grade Mobile Science Lab - to the students of Claudia B. Pelland and Susan Martindell, Teachers at Parsons Elementary School - special features of this project include a hands-on approach through various soil, plant and geology science kits, a large "viewscope" microscope and a rolling storage cabinet for shared use.

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Please Help Support these Enriching Experiences:

We need your help to continue such extraordinary, hands-on projects. Please send your tax-deductible gift to: ELF, P.O. Box 1100, Easthampton, MA 01027

Our children need your help to be prepared for the work place which they are headed for. Now is the time to help them, once they get out of school it will cost us more to reeducate them. This is your opportunity to Make A Difference.

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If you share our concern about the quality of education in Easthampton, we encourage you to support our youth in any of the following ways:

• Attend meetings, of the Easthampton Learning Foundation, contact us to find out when the next one is scheduled.
• Make a tax-deductible donation. With a donation our youth will get the tools they need. We need your help to make these goals a reality.
• Support our events and spread the word that Easthampton is a community that has a vested interest in quality of life -- a quality that begins with a commitment to education.

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Other Resources:

 

The Learning Enhancement Grant, is a way for you to donate equipment, supplies or direct financial support to improve education in Easthampton.

In that we are not directly connected with any public school, private school or any municipal department we can help educators to implement teaching programs or special techniques that require resources beyond present supplies or equipment.

At no time will foundation monies be spent on routine maintenance, administrative or other normal costs associated with running the schools.

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Board of Directors:

• Richard Perras, President - E-Mail
• Stanley Paulauskas, Vice-President
• Charles McCullough, Jr., Treasurer - E-Mail
• Lisa Wilby, Recording Secretary - E-Mail

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Board Members

• Randall Counsman - E-mail
• Ada Counsman - E-mail
• Christa McCauley - E-Mail
• Elizabeth Provo - E-mail
• Edward Wagner - E-Mail

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Meetings:

E.L.F. meets, on an as needed basis.

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Fundraisers:

• Annual Gala Event