Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation

Thanks to the hundreds of individual, organizational and corporate sponsors for our November event – you made our event possible!

(Please email Kara at support@sgfound.org for any corrections or additions to this list. We tried to be as accurate as possible.)

Submitted to the Journal:

At its December 1 meeting the board of the Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation (SGCEF) joined with volunteers and members from the Springville Center for the Arts to celebrate the success of the silent auction and wine tasting fund raiser on November 12. Seth Wochensky, director of the SCA, accepted a check for $25,000 to support construction of classroom space and repairs to the exterior of its building.

With Spring Creek Athletic Club again donating its space for the event, over 300 guests turned out to bid on silent auction items, to hear performances by school district and community musicians, and sample selections from Barefoot Wine.

Supporters of the SCA helped to drive the number of silent auction offerings to 80 – the event’s highest number ever – which included many original art pieces.

SCA offers performance, exhibition, cinema and workshop programs for adults of all ability levels, and for children. The organization collaborates with Springville Youth Incorporated, and continues to provide workshop programming on topics such as musical theater and fine arts. Now housed in the former First Baptist Church, SCA has doubled its youth involvement, which has created a new and urgent demand for classroom space.

The Foundation has raised over $100,000 in its five-year history, supporting projects and programs for the Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District and community organizations. Grant applications for projects up to $5000 for local individuals and groups will be accepted in 2012.

With support from SGCEF, students at the SGI High School will be able to participate in Books of Hope, now E-Luminate, a not-for-profit organization that fosters literacy development both here and abroad.

Through the project, students will be designing non-fiction textbooks for students in a sister school in Sierra Leone, where students have had to struggle through civil unrest, including war and slavery.  School is a luxury for these students, but they do not have the textual materials that line the shelves in our own classrooms.  Students’ books, on self-selected topics of interest for various grade levels, will help to bring hope and peace, and bring our sister students the friendship and love needed to construct their dreams.

According to Apryl Poch, special education teacher at SGI High School, “Some of my students have started creating books on global history topics, creative writing, sports, and cooking.  While I haven’t been able to provide the students with many visual representations during the “construction” of the web pages, the new site is currently up and running at http://e-luminate.org/.  Various videos, photos, PowerPoints, and sample books are available on this website.  These “visuals” help show what students will be doing.”

By all accounts, our fourth annual silent auction and wine tasting event on Saturday, Nov. 12 was a success. With space generously given for the event by Spring Creek Athletic Club in Springville, almost 300 people turned out for two hours of snacks, music and bidding on 80 auction items. Mike Randall of WKBW graciously gave his time to serve as the evening’s emcee. Barefoot Wineries supplied a large selection of their fine wines for another year.

Entertainment came from three local groups: Bella a Cappella, Springville-Griffith Institute High School Jazz Band and Springville Community Jazz Band. If you left when the auction item winners were being announced, you missed the Jazz Band playing a medley of songs from the Blues Brothers!

The Foundation met its goal of $25,000 to support a capital improvement to the Springville Center for the Arts, and a final total will be officially announced soon.

A listing of all the local companies, organizations and individuals who made this great evening possible will be listed on this web site soon.

There’s still time to contribute silent auction items and donations for the fourth annual Silent Auction and Wine Tasting, scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12 at 6 p.m. at Spring Creek Athletic Club in Springville. Last year’s event saw over 350 guests support the event, with funds raised going toward the purchase of a digital mammography machine at Bertrand Chaffee Hospital.

The first $25,000 raised from this event will benefit the Springville Center for the Arts as they construct classroom space to expand course offerings for adults and children in the community.

Entertainment will be provided by the Springville Community Jazz Band, Bella a Cappella and the Springville-Griffith Institute Jazz Band. Mike Randall of WKBW will serve as the master of ceremonies.

Over 45 auction items have already been collected, including gift certificates from many local restaurants, stores and services, an original painting from Dean Haglund (X-Files actor and artist) and tickets for upcoming Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres games.

For tickets, please contact support@sgfound.org or (716) 592-2296. Pre-sale tickets are $25 per couple or $15 for a single. At the door, tickets are $30 per couple or $20 for an individual.

Wine selections are generously provided by Barefoot Wineries.

The Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation has announced the mini-grant and grant recipients following its request for applications earlier this year. The total amount of funding for this round of grants was $9,995.

The Foundation notified the applicants of the awards in August, and funds are being distributed to them throughout the fall.

• Books of Hope: Enriching Student Literacy Here and Abroad. Apryl Poch, Springville-Griffith Institute High School
• Visualize Learning in First Grade. Christina Campbell, Springville Elementary School
• SGI Guitar Club Jam Hub. Tim Hooker, Springville-Griffith Institute High School.
• Digital/Visual Literacy Project. Angela Occhino-Ginnitti, Springville-Griffith Institute High School.
• Middle School Aquaponics Equipment. Joseph Karb, Springville Middle School.
• Interscholastic Banners. Joe DeMartino, Springville-Griffith Institute High School.
• E-read to Succeed. Karen Landau, Springville Middle School.
• Grand piano replacement and repair, partial funding. Karen Jurkowski, Springville-Griffith Institute High School.
• Colden Senior Center Gaming Activity. Stephanie Czerniak, Town of Colden.

The funding for these projects was made possible through the donations of community members and local businesses from the Foundation’s 2010 annual fund raiser. For 2011, the Foundation has scheduled its fourth annual wine tasting and silent auction fund raiser on Saturday, November 12. The first $25,000 raised will go toward the Springville Center for the Arts, as they construct classroom space and make repairs to their building exterior. Additional funds raised will go toward mini-grants and grants in 2012 and other community projects. For more information, visit sgfound.org.

The board of the Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation (SGCEF) has decided that the major recipient of funding from its annual wine tasting and silent auction event will be Springville Center for the Arts (SCA).

As a multi-arts center, the SCA offers performance, exhibition, cinema and workshop programs for adults of all ability levels, and for children. The organization collaborates with Springville Youth Incorporated, and continues to provide workshop programming on topics such as musical theater and fine arts. Now housed in the former First Baptist Church, the SCA has doubled its youth involvement, which has created a new and urgent demand for classroom space.

Based on its record of success in previous years, the SGCEF plans to give $25,000 to SCA to support construction of classroom space and repairs to the exterior of its building. Nearly 100 local businesses, organizations and individuals contributed to the 2010 fund raiser, and plans are in motion for an even larger event for 2011. Silent auction items, donations and gifts in kind to support the event, scheduled for Saturday, November 12, are being actively collected by board members over the next six weeks. The event will be held again at the Spring Creek Athletic Club on West Main Street in Springville, and tickets will be available after Oct. 10 from Spring Creek Athletic Club, the Springville Center for the Arts, any board member, or by emailing support@sgfound.org.

The Foundation’s Board approved a series of grant and mini-grant requests at its August meeting. Recipients will be notified this month by postal mail.

As a result of its call for grant and mini-grant applications earlier this year, the Springville-Griffith Community Education Foundation received 16 requests for funding totaling just over $27,000. The applications included outlines for innovative classroom projects in the Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District and equipment acquisitions for community benefit.

All those who have submitted grant requests will be notified of the results soon after the foundation’s next meeting on July 7, when the board will discuss each application and make decisions about distribution. The board will also continue with preparations for its annual fund raiser, the wine tasting and silent auction, on November 12, 2011. Award information will also be posted on this web site.

In just about a month, the Foundation received over 15 applications for grants and mini-grants. A subcommittee will be reviewing and summarizing the applications prior to the Board’s next regular meeting in early July.

The SGCEF contributed $25,000 in proceeds from its third annual wine tasting and silent auction event to Bertrand Chaffee Hospital’s project to offer digital mammography as part of its ever-expanding set of services.

The Springville Journal has an article about the ribbon-cutting ceremony held at the Hospital on April 18; the mammography machine is now available to patients.