Since 2020, the Dent County Public Schools Foundation (DCPSF) has been organizing and involving the community in its fundraising to aid all five school districts in the Dent County area. DCPSF is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization—meaning it is uniquely able to accept charitable gifts to assist with classroom mini-grants. The DCPSF recently received a $10,000 donation from the Dragonfly Wings Foundation, which will go toward supporting classroom mini-grants for Dent County School Districts.
"The goal of the Dent County Public Schools Foundation is to raise funds to support classroom mini-grants for over 80 classrooms to enhance learning in all our Dent County Schools, including Oak Hill R-1, Green Forest R-2, Dent-Phelps R-3, North Wood R-4, and Salem R-80. The mini-grants will provide more opportunities for hands-on learning and experiences for non-budgeted items," said Lynne Emory Engle, President of the Foundation.
This is the second donation received from the Dragonfly Wings Foundation, and it will benefit many of the students in Dent County.
Since the beginning of the school year, the DCPSF has awarded almost $8,000 in classroom mini-grants. Some of the various grants received during this school year include Oak Hill calculators; Green Forest 7th and 8th grade trip to a play, literacy games and resources; Dent-Phelps flexible seating items, literacy and math resources for the classrooms; North Wood math and STEM resources, maps for the sixth grade classroom, and resources for Parents as Teachers Program; R-80 math resources, AG laptop, sensory resources, library books, and classroom books.
"As you can see, all of the classroom grants that have been approved by our DCPSF Committee have offered valuable resources for many students and classrooms," said Engle.
Board members want to assure teachers that the application is incredibly simple and user-friendly, being only one-page with a few lines of information to fill-out. Voting on funding recipients is an on-going process and takes about a week for processing. Each district can contact their building representative if questions should arise. Receipts are required once the resources have been purchased and the mini-grant fulfilled. The receipts can be given to the corresponding building representative.
The Dent County Public Schools Foundation plans to work on other local donations and fundraising over the next couple of months. Any organization wanting to donate can send donations to the DCPSF Treasurer, Michael Sullivan at ℅ Scenic Rivers CPAs, 221 W. 4th Street, Salem. Donations can also be made in person at Town & Country Bank with Dent County Public Schools Foundation specified as the recipient. The community can make donations, either recurring monthly donations or one-time donations, to DCPSF on the website hosted by Community Foundation of the Ozarks, https://cfozarks.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=6578.
Any questions can be directed to any member of the DCPSF.
Board Members include Lynne Emory Engle, Tammy Sellers, Ruth Ann Parker, Mary Beth Cook, Michael Sullivan, and Dr. Bernie Sirois. School representatives include Marilyn Sweitzer, Ashley Crocker Floyd, Melissa Glenn, Sarah Parker, Kristina Jackson, Dan Copeland, Kathy Grover, and Laine Schafer.
