Recently, the Youth Fund Advisory Committee reviewed and decided upon fourteen grant applications.  These applications were comprised of various projects, concerning numerous different schools and many diverse areas of the community.  However, few of the proposed plans held outstanding merit and quality. 

The first was from Avon High School.  Life skills classes there will create handmade quilts for newborn infants and their families.  Besides the clear connection to classroom curriculum (learning to sew, mathematical ability to properly measure fabric), the students will be gaining knowledge of their responsibility to help those in need and will have the experience of working with other students to produce a beautiful quilt.  This is a previously existing project that the Youth Fund has supported in the past. 

Another exceptional venture originated from The Arts Academy.  This undertaking incorporates residents from Anchor Lodge Nursing Home and a few second grade classrooms.  The students will meet with residents once a week to share stories and together they will plant and maintain a small garden of vegetables and flowers.  In addition to learning about the biology of plants and their growth, the children will be connecting with senior citizens, encountering firsthand the results of their efforts, and realizing the impact they make in other people’s lives.  Although this project has not been presented to the Youth Fund in the past, the committee members believe that this is a beneficial service learning project that will hopefully continue in the future.