The Foundation for Educational Excellence is grateful to receive significant support this year from Women in Philanthropy (WIP), a Lowcountry organizations that works to strengthen families and individuals in Beaufort County. The 2021 WIP grant theme was "Provide a New Major Impact Program for Assisting in Recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic in Three Areas: Medical and Mental Health Issues, Education Issues and Employment Issues."
We are honored to be the recipient of a $25,000 education grant from WIP to fund tutoring needs for COVID recovery programs for students at Robert Smalls International Academy and Shanklin Elementary School. The “Emerging Scholars” funding will provide 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students, who are three or more grade levels behind, with high quality reading instruction and intervention.
We are also grateful to Women in Philanthropy for their 2019 grant to the Whale Branch Middle School's Archeology Club. The club's project, "Revolution in the Lowcountry" is making news for the significant artifacts discovered near the school that are from the American Revolutionary War era and the Civil War era. A museum wall is being constructed to showcase the discoveries made at Whale Branch.
Deborah Colella, Immediate Past Foundation Chair and the grant writer for this project, is working with a team of enthusiastic volunteers to create the museum space. They include Dr. Pamela Storey, Eugene Brugger MEd, Dr. Daniel Battle, archeologist and donor of artifacts, Robert Gecy Photography, who has done drone mapping, and Fred Lawton, Whale Branch Middle School principal.
The museum wall, pictured above behind the volunteers, will have an official opening in September.
