Knollwood Students Write Grant Proposals to Make Community a Better Place

Education, the environment, disabilities and town unity. These are all issues that are the focus of grant proposals developed by 7th graders at the  in Fair Haven. 

The Fair Haven Education Foundation (FHEF) is sponsoring a competition where the students submit grant proposals and the winner will receive $2,000 to make their project a reality. "Our mission is to prepare our children for their future success by investing in innovative projects that enhance the academic environment at the Sickles and Knollwood Schools," said Pat Morris Finaldi, the FHEF president.

This is the second year that they have sponsored this project. Last year, the competition was voluntary and they had 6 students submit proposals. The winning project from last year used the money to purchase iPads for the 8th grade students to use in the school library. This year, grant writing has been incorporated into the curriculum as part of the literacy classes.

"The Education Foundation is so excited that this is now part of the curriculum," said Finaldi. "First because it helps us attract more students and creates more great grant opportunities, second it is a life-long writing skill that not many other 7th graders will have and third it helps us to create a sense of community and forces the students to think outside of themselves."

The grant writing portion of the curriculum was kicked off on March 10, 2011 with a rally and presentation where students learned what grant writing is all about. At the kick-off, the students were tasked with finding "a problem or need at Knollwood or in Fair Haven and come up with a solution. Throughout the next four weeks, the students come up with ideas, do research, plan and start writing their grant proposals.

During those four weeks, there are two mentor sessions where members of the Education Foundation come to the classes to act as advisors for the students who are in the developing and writing process. Patch stopped by a mentoring session to see what ideas the students have developed so far. While some students were still researching their ideas, others have already have a solid plan.

Christian Keale would like for the Knollwood School to have a Disability Day where speakers would come to educate students about different disabilities and offer activities to show them what it would be like to be disabled. Keale said he got the idea because students at Knollwood with disabilities are in separate classes and he thinks it is important for students to learn necessary skills to break the barrier. "I just want to raise awareness and honor the students at our school who deal with disabilities every day," said Keale.

Eli Rallo wants to "Make Fair Haven a Merrier Place" by improving their annual holiday tree lighting ceremony. "I don't want it to be all about Santa," she said. "I think it should be a time when everyone can be together and be happy and have fun for free." Rallo said that currently the event is exclusionary because it only honors a holiday that Christians celebrate. One of the main focuses of her project is to purchase a menorah so that people of the Jewish faith would feel more welcome at the event. She also wants to add a variety of music to draw a more diverse crowd, give away free cookies and warm drinks and have all of the businesses come set up a table at the event. "The more action there is, the more people will want to come," she said. 

Chris Fahey wants to buy Rosetta Stone to install on Knollwood computers for students to use during recess. The school only offers French and Spanish language classes so he says this would be an opportunity for kids to try out other languages for fun. "I would want to poll the students to see what languages they are most interested in and then use the grant to purchase 3 or 4 editions of the program," said Fahey. He already is learning French, but if he could learn another he said he would choose German or Chinese.

During the mentoring sessions, the project ideas kept flowing. Emily Tomchak wants Knollwood to have a Danceathon to raise money for an organization that supports people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. Maddie Burpee wants to start a photography class at the Knollwood School. Kiley Pearman wants to build a greenhouse near the Knollwood garden and Willis Manelski thinks it is important to build a garden over at the Sickles school. 

All grant proposals are due to Leigh-Ann Hawkins, a 7th grade teacher, on April 11, 2011. Hawkins will not only grade the assignments, but narrow down 124 submissions to 10 final proposals. Those proposals will then go to a committee for judging. The judging panel is made up of Education Foundation members as well as other community figures. After the judging panel picks the top three, those students will have the opportunity to present their proposals to the Education Foundation for the final round of the competition.

The winner not only receives a $2,000 dollar grant to put their proposal into action, but also receives a $500 gift card.