Loudon County Education Foundation officials believe the year was a success because it brought in more funds for local schools than the year before.
Total funds dispersed this year was $87,506, which is up slightly from 2015 at $86,225.
“The community was very receptive and very supportive of our goals and, of course, we always could use more assistance and would want that so we can help more children and help the school system more, and that is our major goal is to focus on assisting in the needs of the Loudon County Schools and Lenoir City Schools,” Sharon Yarbrough, LCEF board chairwoman, said.
Yarbrough will remain chairwoman until the end of the year. Sandra Day takes over in January.
More than 8,000 teachers and students were impacted this year, which is also up from 2015. Much of that can be credited to the LCEF board’s willingness to select grants that affect larger groups of people, Michele Lewis, LCEF executive director, said.
“Generally we look for grants that have a large impact,” Lewis said. “So, if we have one grant that’s asking for $1,000 that benefits 150 kids and we have another that’s $1,000 that benefits 500 kids then we’re more likely to choose the one that benefits 500. Sometimes it may be the same amount of money we’re giving out but the things that the teachers are asking for and the number of kids and the decisions made by my board (affect who gets the grant).”
Local restaurants helped bring in the most funds ever collected for the third annual Dine Out for Education. Lewis said the annual fundraiser met its goal of roughly $3,000, bringing in $2,938.35. Hopes are to eventually raise $5,000, but Lewis said that will take time to achieve.
“Each year it just becomes a little more widely known and more restaurants join us and more people go out,” Lewis said. “It takes a while to build interesting and special events sometimes.”
Banking on Education, which served as the replacement for Stuff the Bus, brought in less than LCEF officials hoped at $2,000. The goal was to bring in about $4,000. Lewis said LCEF remains “very committed” to build off the event’s first attempt. Officials may look to get more sponsors involved next year to raise more money, she said.
Banking on Education was designed to bring in cash instead of mostly donated supplies with Stuff the Bus. The amount raised this year impacts 500 teachers and students.
“For the first time out the door we just needed to plan a little for that event and are working on doing that for this year,” Lewis said. “Ultimately, we still gave more to the schools than what we’ve been able to do in the past with Stuff the Bus. Stuff the Bus had kind of just reached a point where we were going backwards in the amount of supplies that we were collecting because there’s so many other community efforts that are doing close to the same thing.”
Stuff the Bus typically brought about $250 for classrooms. Lewis said the largest collected was $750.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library participant numbers proved to be the highest ever in the county at 1,800, which is 68 percent saturation of eligible children. LCEF contributes $21,875 to the literacy program for children ages 0-5.
“One of the questions that I get a lot of times when I’m asking for support is how does a book benefit a 0 to 1-year-old baby, but the thing is that’s time the parent is holding the child and interacting with them,” she said. “So, the basis there to build that family foundation is wonderful.”
Looking to the future
Despite what many consider a successful year, Lewis said there is still room for improvement, especially extending LCEF’s reach.
“Education is the great equalizer,” she said. “It is the opportunity for everyone to raise their earning capacity, their ability to function as a successful person in the community. Supporting education benefits everyone.”
Hopes are to put together a three-year plan, which is something Lewis said hasn’t been much of an option over the past five years as the foundation rebuilt itself after struggling to earn funds.
More than $450,000 has been raised over the past five years, according to an end-of-the-year document.
Lewis said the LCEF Garden Party may be scrapped after two years because of the difficulty to find gardens unique enough and open enough for visitors to come visit. This year the Garden Party brought in $1,537.72.
“The gardens that we — and they were beautiful gardens — but they were Tellico Village and Rarity Bay and so the number of attendance that we were able to get to travel that far out, because we were really hoping to pull in sort of a large regional audience and we didn’t do that as well as we thought,” Lewis said.
Although not as successful as officials would have hoped, Lewis said LCEF would continue to create new events.
“It usually takes a least two to three years to build an event,” she said. “Sometimes you can tell within the second year if you really have a good idea that’s kind of going to carry on. We would rather have a successful event that we could commit to over a longer term than to do lots of different mini events. As I said before, we have a lot of organizations in this community that are doing a lot of activities that are hitting a lot of the same people.”
For the first time, LCEF officials are considering a marathon in December 2017. Go LoCo will include a full marathon, half-marathon and five-kilometer race. More information will be available by January.
“That gives us a lot of play because you can go full LoCo, you can go half LoCo or you can go a little LoCo,” Lewis said, laughing. “But it’s a year out, so we’ve got a lot of time to work on it. We have a really strong committee. We feel like it’s an event that can bring a lot of attention to Loudon County while benefitting education in Loudon County. So we’re really hoping to get a lot of buy-in. ... Right now it’s been approved by the board and it’s in planning stages and we’ve got to firm up some things before we’re 100 percent, but it’s a solid idea.”
Many local leaders see an opportunity to bring people into the county and showcase what Loudon County has to offer, Lewis said.
“I think it will bring an exposure to Loudon County community from outsiders as well as our neighbors across various counties surrounding us,” Yarbrough said. “I think we’ll have an opportunity to market Loudon County and Lenoir City and emphasize that we really do support education in our county.”
