Friday Fundraiser Supports Excellence in Education

Carole Kody is brimming with excitement. Not just for Friday’s fundraising wine tasting for the Plymouth-Canton Schools’ Educational Excellence Foundation, which celebrates the organization’s 25th anniversary.

Over the next few weeks, she’ll be handing out grants to teachers throughout Plymouth-Canton Community Schools and she can’t wait to see the surprised looks on the recipients’ faces.

Grant details will be announced once the money is awarded, said Kody, the foundation’s executive director. An example of how a fairly small grant helps would be a projector that shows an entire class of students a slide under a microscope.

“Normally, kids take turns looking into a microscope while the teacher is explaining what they are seeing,” she said. “So you have the first few kids trying to remember what they saw and the last few kids who haven’t gotten a turn yet.”

The projector cost $300, she said. But the long-term value is nearly priceless because it can be used for years.

“The majority of the grants we make are for supplies and those supplies are used year after year after year,” she said. “So we estimate as many as 10,000 kids benefit from those grants.”

Organizers of Friday’s benefit are hoping to draw as many as 400 to the VisTaTech Center at Schoolcraft College on Friday. Attendees can sample wines from around the world, a selection of Michigan craft-brewed beers and an assortment of appetizers, breads and cheeses provided by one of the evening’s sponsors, Busch’s Fresh Food Market. Guests will mingle with a backdrop of instrumental music provided by students in 20-minute performances.

“We are a hair’s breadth away from a sellout which is really, really exciting,” Kody said. “We were trying to appeal to a wider audience. We’ve been doing a fundraiser at the for the last five years."

Kody said the decision to move the annual fundraiser was partly to save money and partly to “shake things up a bit” and give foundation supporters a change of scenery.

The benefit comes nearly on the heels of the Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget, which suggests a $470 per-pupil cut in state funding. Kody said foundation grants are not intended to fill a gap in state money, however.

“The foundation is not providing textbooks,” Kody said. “The state needs to provide funding to pay the teachers and provide textbooks for our kids. Foundation grants are for innovative stuff that’s going to help our kids compete in a global economy.”

Kody is quick to note that every dollar donated to the foundation is spent within the school district in myriad ways.

Foundation grants have helped give low-income students access to high-tech graphing calculators and created a program that uses Shakespeare’s work to illustrate lessons in geography, social studies and literature in young children.

“That’s the kind of stuff we love,” said Kody. “That’s the kind of stuff we’re trying to fund.”

Grant amounts average $500, though some are higher and a few are less.

One of the first grants ever made by the foundation was just $117. Carole Sweet of Plymouth Township, who taught third grade for five years and fifth grade for 20 years at Gallimore Elementary School used the money to produce a play performed by her students.

“It was called Pinocchio Don’t Smoke That Cigarette,” Sweet said. “We worked with a D.A.R.E. policeman who came to the classroom. My fifth graders performed the play, then they visited other schools to perform the play. I hope it had a good influence on them. Like I said, I did it that not just the first year, but every year after that until I retired. I did it for all the students at Gallimore.”

Since retiring in 1995, Carole Sweet has done more than recall happy memories with her students; she started a $50,000 endowment with the Educational Excellence Foundation, to help Gallimore teachers as well as create scholarships for Gallimore students who graduate from Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.

Kody said former Plymouth-Canton school superintendent Jim Ryan, who now works at Schoolcraft College, helped arrange Friday's benefit.

Since 1985, the foundation has helped students by providing project-specific grants. Early foundation officers included the late Joe Kordick, the late Ken Hulsing, Cindy Merrifield, Tim Yoe, Ed Draugelis, John Lore, Scott Lorenz, Win Schroeder, Tim Yoe, Elaine Kirchgatter, Joe Kordick and Jim Gillig.

Judy Morgan of Plymouth, a current board member and the board’s secretary until recently, said ticket sales so far have been good but there’s room for more.

“We really are very, very pleased with the collaboration with Busch’s and the VisTaTech staff,” she said. “People who are concerned about their taxes and their community should be concerned about education … your home values are affected by the quality of education in a community.”

Kody said most of every dollar given to the foundation goes right to the schools.

“Our overhead is low,” she said. “I only work part time. I get no benefits. We’re not paying rent, we’re not paying utilities. We don’t have a big building. We put as much of the donations as we can back into education as opposed to paying for overhead.”

Friday’s event may bring in a much as $6,000, she said, but hopefully it does something much greater.

“I’m hoping there’s a donor out there who says, ‘Hey there’s something I want to get involved in.’ I’m looking for that $1 million gift,” she said, referring to a recent donation made anonymously to Northville’s schools. “It’s all about informing the public.”

The Educational Excellence Foundation 25th Celebration & Wine Tasting is Friday, 7 to 9:30 p.m., at the Schoolcraft College’s VisTaTech Center, 18600 Haggerty Rd., Livonia. Tickets can be purchased at Busch’s Fresh Food Market in Plymouth or from the receptionist at the board of education building, 454 S. Harvey St. in Plymouth, using cash, check or credit card, or online.