ELEEF’s 20th annual dinner dance supports educational grants

Date: 1/29/2015

EAST?LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow Educational Endowment Fund (ELEEF) will be hosting its 20th annual “Dinner Dance for Education” on Feb. 7 at Twin Hills Country Club, which will include grant awards to 14 district teachers for approximately $25,000.

Laura Caine, an ELEEF Board of Directors member and the chair of the event, told Reminder Publications this year’s total grant funds exceeded previous years by more than $5,000. Within past years, the grant funds was a range of $18,000 to $20,000.

“It’s our night to welcome the community where we honor and celebrate the teachers of East Longmeadow who are recipients of our grant money,” she added. “Every year at the start of the school year we send out applications for grants to all of the schools in town and we encourage all the teachers with the support of their principals, right up to the superintendent to come up with an idea or item or something that will impact the most students possible –  that goes above and beyond the budgetary issues.”

Grant awards to Meadow Brook Elementary School include $4,041 for earth science curriculum texts and manipulative, as well as $1,228 for the Second Step Social Skills curriculum, mobile teaching station, and supplemental literature for Betsy Sheehan’s classes.

At East Longmeadow High School, awards includes a $3,679 grant to Todd Less for a Rostock MAX v2 desktop 3D printer and MB4000 “Principles of Hydraulics” learning system to replace an old, outdated system, according to ELEEF.

An iPad mini learning lab, which includes 10 iPads, cases and charging stations is also the focus for a grant at Mountain View Elementary School to Ann Marie Jagadowski for $4,539.

David Axelrad, a teacher at Mapleshade Elementary School, is also the recipient of a $3,500 grant that will be used for a Lego WeDo Robotics program to expand a program started last year.

At Birchland Park Middle School, an Eartec six-person wired intercom system with dual sided headsets for TV studio used will be the focus of a grant to Mike Naglieri. The funds will be used to replace an old outdated system.

Tickets are available for this year’s “A Night in Back and White” Dinner Dance for Education for $60 each, Caine said. There will be live auction items, including a Koji Uehara signed Boston Red Sox baseball, a Tuukka Rask signed Boston Bruins hockey puck, gift cards to local restaurants, one year of ice cream at Friendly’s, and a two-night stay in Cape Cod.

“This was a good year,” she added. “All the money that we raise, we return back to the schools. The more money we have earn throughout the course of the year, the more we have to give back to the schools at the time of the grant awarding.”

For more information visit www.eleef.org.