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Schools

Forked River Elementary School Media Center Gets a Makeover

A $5,000 Lowe's Toolbox for Education® grant means new furniture and energy-efficient lighting for school media center.

With media center furniture dating back to the 1950s and a school-wide energy efficient mandate, a $5,000 Lowe’s Toolbox for Education® grant couldn’t have come any sooner for the .

The grant will be used to finance a media center makeover that includes the purchase of new student furniture and energy-efficient lighting fixtures.

“We’re very, very fortunate to get this,” Principal Eric Fielder said.

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With solar panels installed at the school just over a year ago, Fielder said, “It all just fits in perfectly.”

GATE teacher Andrea Blatt wrote the winning grant. She said the media center houses the school’s library books, six computers and an interactive white board that is used for staff training.

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The center not only serves as a meeting place for students and staff throughout the school day, it is also used for Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings, after-school care, and other community events, said Blatt.

According to its Facebook page, Lowe's established the Toolbox for Education® grant program in 2005 to help build better communities and schools. The program has provided more than $20 million to more than 4,000 schools across the country.

An OceanFirstlibrary initiative a couple years ago motivated Blatt and her colleagues at Forked River Elementary School to pursue grants that could fill in funding gaps, she said.

“If something like this can pay for furniture and facility upgrades, it means more money that we can funnel toward students and learning,” said Fielder.

Blatt said she learned to write grants as a volunteer with nonprofit groups and through workshops she attended at Cornell University. She and a volunteer committee at Forked River Elementary School meet regularly to research opportunities to finance projects that will benefit the school and its students.

The school didn’t win the initial OceanFirst award it applied for, but has since received other awards, including a $2,500 ING grant to purchase books for the media center, a Target grant that will finance a third grade field trip to Batsto Villagethis spring, and an OceanFirst Going Green grant that will underwrite an alternative energy unit for GATE students, said Blatt.

She and other GATE teachers are currently meeting on their own time to develop lesson plans for the four day unit that will take place at the end of April or the beginning of May, said Blatt.

She said students will receive solar powered cars that they will assemble themselves with the assistance of the Old Barney Amateur Radio Club. The lesson will conclude with a Solar Powered Grand Prix, for which the PTA will supply trophies.

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