Lake Wales Teachers Offered "Grants for Great Ideas"

Teachers and other school-based professionals that work directly with students at a Lake Wales Charter School or Polk County Public School in Lake Wales are eligible to receive one of ten $250 grants that will be awarded by the Lake Wales Junior Woman's Club.

Mary Walkup

Shelley Clemons of the GFWC Junior Woman's Club of Lake Wales (L) shares a grant check with Spook Hill Elementary teacher Cynara Appling for a science project to help introduce to her students to the solar system.

Grants for Great Ideas is a competitive grant, and applications have been sent to all eligible school principals and assistant principals for the first grant cycle of this school year. A volunteer committee of key community stakeholders will review, score, and rank the applications.

Funds for the Grants for Great Ideas program were raised through the inaugural Fall Festival that the Junior Woman's Club held last year. The club is a member of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), a worldwide women's service organization.

Applications for the first grant cycle are due on September 13. A second grant cycle will open January 8 with grant applications due by February 12.

In addition to the Grants for Great Ideas program, the Junior Woman's Club works to support Lake Wales students who are at-risk, homeless, live in a shelter, are unaccompanied minors, or who have been displaced from their home due to an emergency removal.

The Junior Woman's Club works directly with the Lake Wales Police Department to provide "Backpacks of Love" for these students.

The Club is "working hard on this year's Fall Fest to raise more money to expand both programs," said Junior Woman's Club President Shelley Clemons.

Mary Walkup

A display of the sun and planets was part of a seven-unit hands-on science project for students at Spook Hill School who were invited to imagine themselves as astronauts.

The club is planning this year's event Fall Festival, which will be held on Saturday, November 9 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lake Wailes Park.

For more information about the Grants for Great Ideas program or to become involved with the Fall Fest fundraiser, phone 863-949-0252 or email lwjuniorwc@gmail.