A boost for Cape schools

If you want a big dose of enthusiasm to get you going some morning, call Angie Bender, the executive director of the Cape Girardeau Public Schools Foundation.

Bender has been working hard to inform the community about the "new" and "reorganized" foundation. Her efforts, along with foundation board members and many financial supporters, have paid off handsomely for 11 teachers who recently found out their applications for classroom grants had been approved.

The grants -- $20,400 in all -- were for professional development, after-school programs targeting black high school students, literacy programs, the Marathon Kids Club, drums for elementary schools, books for the Balanced Literacy Program, family reading nights, a sixth-grade science program, a Science Olympiad, professional development for students to learn job skills, keyboarding software and a reading and storytelling program.

Impressed? That's just a start. Bender and board members of the reorganized foundation have set their sights high for raising money to boost the quality of education in the Cape Girardeau School District. A fund raiser is involving many past supporters of foundation efforts who are giving generously to this reorganized effort. Soon, names of these founding donors will be placed on special plaques that will be displayed at each school.

The biggest beneficiary of the foundation's efforts, of course, are the students. Each of the grants awarded to the teachers -- there were 28 applications in the competitive grant process -- will be used to enhance, in one way or another, the learning experiences and opportunities of classroom students.

Bender says the foundation hopes to make grants for classroom needs twice a year. And there are other needs that will be addressed by the foundation as well.

To do this, of course, hinges on the generosity of supporters of the Cape Girardeau's public schools. Anyone interested in participating in this worthwhile effort can call Bender at 651-0555. Or write to the foundation at P.O. Box 399, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702. Or check out the foundation at this Web site: www.capeschools.org.

Any help will be appreciated. And teachers and students will be the winners.