Waupaca Area Community Foundation awards grants
The Waupaca Area Community Foundation hosted its annual Celebration of Giving on Oct. 1.
The foundation awarded $80,500 in grants to local nonprofit organizations.
Established in 2003, WACF’s mission is to preserve and improve the quality of life for the people of the greater Waupaca area. It is a regional affiliate of the Appleton-based Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
2018 grant recipient
Tomorrow’s Children is a residential care center in the Waupaca area.
This private, none-profit organization opened its doors in 1973 and has been serving students, ages 5-17, with emotional and behavioral needs from Wisconsin and Minnesota since that time.
Tomorrow’s Children is licensed by the state of Wisconsin and governed by a board of directors.
The on-grounds school follows Department of Public Instruction regulations and receives Title I funds.
Housing five main multi-graded and -leveled classrooms, the school is open year round and, during the academic year, follows curriculum for all core subject areas – math, reading, English and language arts, social studies, science.
It also offers art, keyboarding, physical education.
Summer School brings shorter school days an concentrates on “real stuff,” such as baking or measuring plant growth, as well as fishing and hiking, according to Therapist/Education Director Jean Koszalinski.
Individuals comprising the 24-hour awake staff in the units generally work in eight-hour shifts, teaching students the basics of life and how to live with others.
Teachers are licensed, as are therapists, counselors and directors. All work on respect, banishing bullying, and teaching coping and problem-solving skills.
They help parents learn skills, too, to assist them in meeting the needs of their children in different ways.
In 2018, Tomorrow’s Children received a Waupaca Area Community Foundation grant for $4,187 that funded the purchase of three SMART Board projectors and nine Chromebooks.
The technology upgrades help sharpen a curriculum focus on reading and math particularly, but also allow teachers to expand on lessons.
Instructors teach students where to find information online, thereby enabling students to research subjects in more depth than possible through textbooks alone.