District 157-C Education Foundation Awards New Grants

The schools in received $56,000 in grants from the district's education foundation recently.

Here's what each school earned from the Frankfort School District 157-C Education Foundation:

• Grants funded SMART boards, interactive software, the Reading Across Grand Prairie program and books in the Monarch Award program.
• Grants funded SMART boards, interactive software and books in the Bluestem Award program.
• Grants funded tablet PCs, the general music program, books in the Rebecca Caudill Award program and the Green Screen Movie Making program.

SMART boards incorporate computer and overhead projection technology to create interactive lessons on a traditional whiteboard.

The foundation is volunteer group that helps district schools through financial funding obtained thanks to dinner auctions, corporate sponsors and private donations. The foundation’s 17th annual Dinner Auction with its theme, Give, Grant, Grow! will be April 20 at CD & ME. It is open to the public.

For more information about the foundation, call 815-469-5922.

Hickory Creek Students Prep for Geography Bee

The first round of the National Geographic Bee begins at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, for Hickory Creek Middle School students.

The bee, sponsored by the National Geographic Society, is organized for students in fourth through eighth grades across the country and is designed to encourage teachers to spark interest in geography.

Here are the students representing each grade level:

Eighth Grade: Jason Ciabattoni, Grace Juracka, Corbin Moore and Brian Dahlman.

Seventh Grade: Ian McCormick, Daniel Hudziak, Tori Green and Jair Powell

Sixth Grade: Evan Bruninga, Zach Parduhn and Jake Tencza.

The school winner advances to the state level, where a written exam determines that winner, who competes in the national finals in May for scholarships up to $25,000.

Students Play Santa for a Good Cause

Hickory Creek Middle School students got to play the role of Santa Claus this year, helping needy children through a variety of charitable initiatives.

Sixth-graders participated in Direct Effect Charities of Chicago's Letters to Santa program, which teacher Renée Grady coordinated. The program forwards letters needy children have written to Santa to schools and other groups and encourages them to grant the children’s holiday wishes, with a price limit set for each gift.

Students also helped out though the district's Character Counts character education program by granting the wishes of needy pre-kindergarten through fourth-grade students from Chicago's Cesar E. Chavez Multicultural Academic Center who wrote letters to Santa. Students wrapped the gifts and wrote letters back to each child as Santa’s helpers.