RSS Feed
 |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pacesetters honored with $25,000 grant Western Carolina Pacesetters, Inc. has been awarded a $25,000 strategy grant from The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina to develop grade specific environmental education programs. Pacesetters staff will offer these programs at Pacesetters Adventure Center and also be available to travel to schools in the organization's five county service area with outreach programs. Bob Wagner, Vice President of Programs for the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, has charged the organization with fulfilling stewardship responsibilities and to participate in an end-of-grant "Actual Outcomes" evaluation. On February 26th members from the foundation's advisory board (Barbara Vicknair representing Cherokee County; Charles Penland of Clay County; and Lynn Shields of Graham County) and Tim Richards, Senior Program Officer for the foundation, conducted a site visit at Pacesetters Adventure Center located in the Marble area. In addition to Pacesetter staff detailing scope and intent of proposed grant during the site visit, Matt Rogers, Pacesetters Board Chairman; Lester Greene, Secretary/ Treasurer; and Steve Hindsman, Board Member at Large contributed their evaluations of the organization's ability to deliver services to students. Also contributing to the discussion was NC Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Regional Consultant Linda Grainey. Over the course of the upcoming year Pacesetters will install a computerized weather station atop The Great Wall of Opportunity, a sixty foot high climbing tower that will feature a live cam in addition to tracking rainfall, wind speed, and direction. Students will be able to access this data via computer and analyze weather patterns in the region. Students visiting the Center will experience enhanced steam walks and conduct water and soil tests along with a host of other environment projects. Pacesetters Environmental Leader Robin Lenner, a graduate of Warren Wilson College, is currently attending the Smoky Mountain Science Teacher Institute being conducted at the Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont. Participants are busy monitoring and inventorying a variety of different habitats in addition to learning new hands on projects for students. Dr. Robert Hearn, Pacesetters Director of Development, noted, "This is exciting. Not only for our organization but for students around the region. As school budgets get tighter due to increased expenses, our environmental education programs will be in greater demand."
Funding for Pacesetters Environmental Education Center has been provided by the following funds of the Community Foundation of Western North Caro- lina: the Dogwood Charitable Endowment Fund, the Little Acorn Endowment Fund, the Diana Wortham Endowment Fund, the Gretchen Batra Fund, and the Lipscomb Family Foundation Fund. The Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization that serves the 18 county mountain region by professionally managing charitable funds created by individuals and families, and by using those funds to make grants to local nonprofit organizations.
|
for larger version       |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
