Submitted by Lucy Cook, Senior and IF Board Member
Students of the Impact Foundation (IF), a student-led committee of the York Suburban Education Foundation (YSEF), have secured another grant to contribute valuable funds to their projects across the district. In December 2016, IF students completed building six Impact Closets at each school in the district with the help of YSEF volunteer advisors Josh Carney and Sarah Reinecker, faculty advisors Dr. Denise Fuhrman and Dr. Brian Ellis, and various district faculty. The organization was awarded $2,000 by the School Superintendent’s Association and National Joint Powers Alliance (AASA/NJPA) Helping Kids Urgent Mini Grant in January 2017. This grant was written by Resource Development co-chair Lucy Cook, and additional grants are being pursued by co-chairs Jack Schultz and Parker Faircloth-Henise.
The AASA/NJPA Mini Grant allots money for closet stock of high demand, high cost items like laundry detergent and cleaning products. Furthermore, it provides funds for the future implementation of a district-wide eye glasses program. This was in response to a growing number of students who have been identified through the annual school nurse vision screenings as needing corrective vision glasses. IF/YSEF building meetings with staff professionals in the beginning of the 2016-17 school year revealed that as students are screened, more may have difficulty securing glasses. The seed money will be used to link York Suburban community eye glass professionals with school professionals with the purpose of developing an ongoing program.
You can help the Impact Foundation with this project by making a monetary donation at www.ysef.org/donate. Helping to sustain the Impact Closet stock is another way to help by dropping off needed items like laundry detergent, feminine hygiene products and cleaning supplies to one of the IF donation bins located in each YS building. Stay tuned for the many other ways York Suburban students are helping students.
2016-17 Student Board L to R: Collin Slenker, David Ilayan, Sahara Wilt, Emily Englar, Zach Weinstein, Carl Young, Matt Baquero, Jack Schultz, Lucy Cook, Parker Faircloth-Henise, Peter Wagner