This year, the Foundation raised more than $100 thousand through private contributions from local residents and businesses alone. The major portion of those funds went straight to our teachers, to fund innovative programs that benefit Dobbs Ferry Students.

Here’s a summary of the teacher incentive grants the Foundation funded this year:

Papermaking -Mary Gallagher Artist residency program for grades K-2 led by artist and arts educator Mary Ann Lomonaco. The kindergarten class made cotton rag and produced pulp paper. The first and second graders produced more sophisticated three-dimensional pieces using the paper that they made.

Study Group Teachers College Project-Doug Berry & Susie Messina A program to raise the literacy instruction within our schools through professional development.

Peaceful Kids - Susie Steinthal & Mary Gallagher A program to help children develop the self-discipline necessary for being fair-minded and caring individuals who will be empathetic, cooperative and respectful of all.

Teachers as Readers Project -Allison Colesworthy Program in which groups of teachers and administrators to read and discuss children’s books, adolescent literature and professional books on a regular basis. Educators are then to use the knowledge and ideas they have shared to create richly literature classrooms where students read and discuss literature with confidence and pleasure.

Kid to Kids International Bookmaking Sponsored by a group of Springhurst 1^st and 2^nd grade teachers, this program lets children create counting and alphabet books which are then sent to a classroom in a developing nation.

Globemaking-Karen Weber This project, in which third graders work in groups to create globes using a beach ball and plaster of paris enables the children have a better understanding of the world and geographic concepts such as continent, ocean, equator, prime meridian, latitude and longitude.

Philharmonia Virtuosi -Ching Chen & John Kaste A performance workshop by The Philharmonia Virtuosi , a renowned chamber orchestra, based in Dobbs Ferry to assist the Middle School in improving and strengthening its instrumental instruction, and to provide additional enrichment to general music students.

Calculator Based Laboratory - Ann Stanton A grant to fund the purchase of state of the art technology that allows high school students to take "real" and direct measurements that until now had only been able to be demonstrated or measured indirectly.

Springhurst Ceramics Project -Stephanie Thyrre Ceramics Program for K-4 Students and faculty in which each student will produce a ceramic tile which will become a permanent installation in the new school.

Earth Day 2000 -Ellyce Cavanaugh Earth Day 2000 activity for grades 5-8 in which the "Arm-of-the-Sea" theater company performed a repertoire which addressed the environmental concerns of our every day existence.

Hit a Home Run in Reading -Theresa Corbin and Jessica Bauer Baseball- theme reading incentive program for all first graders, in which students win awards such as baseball caps, stamps, and T-shirts for meeting specified reading goals.

IPS Summer Workshop - James Cottingham Off-site training for middle school science teacher in the Introductory Science Program (IPS), the science program used in the middle school for the last three years.

Skate in School - Kim Thorton and Stephanie Peora Purchase of 24 pairs of in-line skates and equipment for grades 5 through 8 to teach in line skating in gym.

Sowing New Seeds - Ellyce Cavanaugh A student-based hands-on program for ESL students that involves establishing a greenhouse garden.

Destination Imaginiation Competitions- Susie Messina  Major funding of transportation for 13 fourth graders to attend state finals and our own state champions to attend national finals for the competition.

In addition, through two corporate grants from Bell Atlantic, the Foundation was able to fund the development of a student-managed Web site for the High School , and an artist-in-residency architecture project at Spinghurst.

This year, in addition to incentive grants, the Foundation agreed to devote substantial funds for the hire of a director for the Media Literacy Program, which is focused on making batter use of the Cable TV studio for our students. Be sure to check our web site for updates on this exciting initiative!