MARK YOUR CALENDARS: SEPTEMBER 20
GET YOUR DANCIN’ SHOES ON!!!!!
The 2012 GGEF Gala will feature
The SWINGIN’ MEDALLIONS!
The 2012 Greater Greer Education Gala will feature the Swingin’ Medallions, so get ready to have some fun!
The foundation’s annual fundraising event will be held Thursday, Sept. 20 at the City of Greer Events Complex on Cannon Street.
Proceeds from the gala will be dispersed in grants to schools, teachers, students, and worthy educational programs in the Greater Greer area. Your contribution will be carefully used to benefit hundreds of students and educators in our community.
ABOUT THE MEDALLIONS
The Swingin' Medallions musical roots came from listening to the early rhythm and blues acts. The music most often associated with the band is beach music, frat rock, R&B, or shagging' music.
After a few years of touring colleges from the Carolinas to the Louisiana Bayou, John McElrath took the group to Arthur Smith's Studio in Charlotte North Carolina, to record "Double Shot (of My Baby's Love)". The song became a million seller in 1966, and has been a party classic for college students for decades. "She Drives Me Out Of My Mind" and "Hey, Hey, Baby" were top 40 hits in 1966 and 1967, but "Double Shot" remains the signature song of the band.
The members of the band have changed over the past thirty years, with John McElrath being the leader and only member to be performing today. The personnel of the band have always included around eight members with at least a four piece horn section. The high energy party style stage performance of the first Swingin’ Medallions has been passed down to the band that performs today. The present band’s stage show has coined them the name "The Party Band of the South."
2012 Grants Bring Big Smiles
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| Adam Massey of Greer High School and students Tyler Ashwood and Peter Barnett are all smiles after receiving a $1,000 grant from the Greater Greer Education Foundation. The grant will be used for the school's Virtual Enterprise and Future Business Leaders of America programs. For more photos, click here. |
GGEF presents $10,300 in grants
to 12 schools and community projects
Jan. 30, 2012
The Greater Greer Education Foundation has awarded $10,300 in grant money to 12 school and community projects in Greenville and Spartanburg counties.
A news conference was held Monday at the Greater Greer Chamber of Commerce to make the presentations.
The grants, made possible by funds from the September 2011 Education Gala and local sponsorships, ranged from $300 to $1,500.
Margaret Burch, foundation chairman, commented that each year the foundation has been able to help teachers and students with more funding than the year before. “We are grateful for the support of the citizens and business community who have embraced our vision and joined us in enhancing educational opportunities in the Greater Greer area,” she said.
The 2012 grants are being awarded to:
· D.R. Hill Middle School, $1,500: The Tiger Reading Territory grant will address the area of differential guided reading instruction that will enable the teacher to work with a small group of students to help them learn effective strategies for processing text with understanding.
· Greer High School English Department, $1,500: The grant will allow the department to participate in an outreach program, known as “The Wooden O,” with The Warehouse theatre in Greenville. The program will be available to every student taking English during the second semester.
· Blue Ridge High School, $1,000: The grant provides funds to the Blue Ridge High School Corps of Cadets band for instrument repair.
· James F. Byrnes High School, $1,000: Funding for the Lifepoint 5K Run in Charleston as an incentive for retention and commitment for students to the “Fight for your Life” program.
· Greer High School, $1,000: Funding for Virtual Enterprise and Future Business Leaders of America programs.
· Woodland Elementary School, $1,000: Funding for iPAD2 to assist pathologist with workload and increase state and district policy of including technology in the classroom.
· Reidville Elementary School, $900: Provide funding to construct a bird habitat. Teachers will use the project to help students understand and use the elements of non-fiction as they participate in an interdisciplinary study of birds.
· Mountain View Elementary School, $600: Funding will be used to purchase Orff instruments to be used in music education.
· Dunbar Child Development Center, $500: Funding for the purchase of iPAD. Students will use its applications to communicate basic needs since most people do not understand sign language.
· CenterQuest, $500: Funding to help meet center’s expenses in providing at-risk children individualized tutoring and homework assistance, especially during the after-school hours.
· Greer Middle College High School, $500: Funding for (25) Kindle Wifi, which will allow students to have all of their English literature, a dictionary, thesaurus and research at their fingertips.
· Mountain View Elementary School, $300: The grant will be used for social skills materials to specifically target teaching socialization and communication skills that are difficult for special needs students to acquire.
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| Margaret Burch, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Greater Greer Education Foundation, congratulates the schools and their representatives for the time and effort put into the grant requests and for caring about their community. |
LIFE-CHANGING CHANCES
David Dolge, chairman of the Greater Greer Education Foundation Grants Committee, was thrilled to present the grants.
Dolge could relate to Byrnes’ Debbie Holcomb’s happiness in receiving a $1,000 grant to fund the Feb. 25 Lifepoint 5K run in Charleston as an incentive for retention and commitment for students in the “Fight for your Life” program.
Leading up to the event, Holcombe will be encouraging all her classes -- at risk-students to honors -- to learn about health and fitness and the value of providing a quality lifestyle through fitness and eating healthy.
“Last year I was there (the 5K run) and wondered ‘how could I get the kids here,’ Holcombe said. “This ($1,000) gets them there. Some of the kids, I don’t think, have ever been out of the county or even seen the beach. This will be an extraordinary adventure for them.”
“It feels great, and it’s very exciting to see the enthusiasm behind the applications,” Dolge, a former educator, said. “When I was teaching at Pickens we took a group of kids to London. Some of them had never flown.”
Dolge said one of his students told him after touring London and its historical landmarks, that ir was a “life changer for her.” She got her degree in chemical engineering and traveled the world. “One day I got a message from her, and she reminded me, “Mr. Dolge, I told you that trip was a life changer.”
Dolge said testimonials like that spur teachers to continue to move forward. “They’re not thinking of themselves. They are thinking of how to meet the needs for their kids. I couldn’t be prouder of our selections this year.”
Adam Massey, teacher for Greer High School’s nationally recognized Virtual Enterprise (VE) class, said the $1,000 grant will be invested into its coffee sales program and its profits will be reinvested. The VE class project, SugarRush, won the state championship last year with its business plan and project and will compete in New York City in March.
“We will increase the efficiency of our coffee and get a larger return on our investment because of this grant,” Massey said.
Dolge said he was impressed with Massey and his student’s efforts. “I told Adam he is in the right place right now and doing a great job with the program.”
Brian Grant, the band director at Blue Ridge High School, asked for funding for instrument repair. “We take some of the larger instruments that are borderline, like a tuba, and repair them. It would take thousands of dollars to do all of them. We can spend $300 on reconditioning a tuba and make it like new,” Grant said.
Grant’s Blue Ridge High School Corps of Cadets is a perennial Upstate- and state-ranked band.
