The Island Education Foundation Board of Trustees held our first meeting of the school year last week. We’re kicking off the school year with a grant to the Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School to purchase pedometers and compasses that will support an educational video project involving two of Island Heritage Trust’s preserves. First and second graders – under the leadership of their teacher Emily Wendell – will create environmental and informational movies about a local Island Heritage Trust preserve.  The movies will be linked to a QR code that hikers can scan with a smartphone application. QR codes will be placed on the IHT trails for hikers to find, scan, and view. We are happy to be a part of this project and look forward to what the students produce. Happy hiking, students!

The Island Education Foundation was established in 1994 to provide increased educational opportunities for Deer Isle and Stonington residents. Our granting season follows the school year and we accept applications from island non-profit organizations seeking to develop educational opportunities for island residents. We are thrilled to report that during the 2015-16 school year, IEF distributed over $11,000 in grants to 13 local educational and/or non-profit institutions and over $5,000 from the Tony and Noi Garland Scholarship fund for high school students attending educational summer camps.  The projects we like to fund involve innovative experiments that may promote new teaching methods, focus on underserved groups, or encourage team efforts to launch new programs not included in the annual school budget. We still have money to grant this calendar year! Take advantage of it by submitting an application before our next meeting on October 13th.  To get an idea of the types of projects we fund, take a look at the list of grants we distributed during the 2015-16 school year.

For more information, visit our website at www.islandeducationfoundation.org, or contact Suzanne Ruch at 348-6686.