A Des Moines County farmer has won $2,500 through “America’s Farmers Grow Communities” Campaign, sponsored by the Monsanto Fund.
Joyce Stover is this year’s winner and she selected the Mediapolis Education Foundation to receive that money. At this morning’s ceremony, it was announced that the money will go towards the school’s outdoor classroom.
Julie Schnedler, who teaches 6th grade science, social studies, and language arts at Mediapolis, showed us the outdoor classroom they’re building, and explained what they hope to do with it…
“Another future project we hope is whole classroom seating, so where it’s more of an auditorium type set up with rocks. A teacher can then have an outdoor white board and take her class outside to conduct her lesson.”
The $2,500 donation doesn’t cover the entire project though…
“Right now what you’re looking at is about $30,000 that was donated by the district. We have since then applied for tons of grants and done fundraisers, and we have another rough $30,000 that the students projects now get to make this look inviting and educational.”
To help with expenses, Schnedler says they also hope to have two programs running during the summer, kind of like a week long summer camp.
With the nasty winter weather we’ve had, students and teachers haven’t been able to utilize their outdoor classroom much yet.
America’s Farmers Grow Communities works directly with farmers to support nonprofit organizations who are doing important work in rural communities.
