Board of directors

OfficersTrey Phillips, President

Deborah Grove, Vice PresidentJeffrey Richards, TreasurerPaula Warrender, Secretary

MembersDon C. Adams, Ph.D.

Carol BrestickerStephanie Calder

Bill EmeryChristine Kavanagh

Edward LyonTim Mahoney

Trisha Gibbons MartyCraig Niklaus

Lynne PiotrowskiPhilip Sprunger

Spencer SweetingPhilip Thomas

J. Michael Wiley, Esq.Robert Williams, Ph.D.

Executive DirectorGregory L. Hayes, Jr.

The WASD Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization,

incorporated in 2004.

2780 West Fourth StreetWilliamsport, PA 17701

570.327.5500 ext. 33495www.wasd.org/foundation

Foundation Celebrates ‘Decade of Growth’10th anniversary celebration held at Community Arts Center

The WASD Education Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary on Nov. 12 at the Community Arts Center, beginning with a private reception for the foundation’s donors and community partners in the Capitol Lounge. The reception was followed by a public benefit concert featuring Dashon Burton and the WAHS orchestra and choir.

Critically acclaimed by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Burton is a Grammy-award winner from the Williamsport Area High School Class of 2000.

Burton won a Grammy award last January as a member of the eight-person vocal ensemble Brad Wells and Roomful of Teeth for the 2013 Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.

For more on this event or to view more photos, visit:www.wasd.org/foundation.

$242,837 grant received for Return to Glory capital campaign

NeWsLetter | decemBer 2014Securing resources, enriching education

The foundation’s Return to Glory capital campaign received a $242,837-grant from the Commonwealth Financing Authority (CFA) earlier this fall.

The grant, which will be administered through the Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program fund, will assist with the renovation of the high school’s stadium, as well as redevelop, repair and offer a new type of recreation space not currently available to area

residents.

Plans for STA Stadium include the installation of a new all-weather field as well as a new eight-lane track, along with other infrastructure improvements to the 42-year-old facility. The project is scheduled to begin this spring, with completion by the fall of 2015, just in time for football season.

(For more, see Page 2, “Return to Glory.”)

Photos By eric Beiter / highLaNd PhotograPhy studio

Mary Lindsay Welch Orchestra Studio Opens

The new orchestra room at WAHS was officially dedicated as the Mary Lindsay Welch Orchestra Studio in a ceremony held on Sept. 10. The ceremony included a music perfor-mance, including “Happy Birthday,” by the Millionaire Strolling Strings for Welch, who was thanked for the many years of support that she and her late husband, Dr. Marshall D. Welch Jr., have provided the district’s arts education programs. The new room is a direct result of an anonymous $100,000 donation made 11 years ago to provide the high school with a much-needed orchestra space. The orchestra program was removed from its original classroom 23 years ago because of inadequacies and being unable to accommodate the growing strings program. Since then, the audito-

rium stage was used for daily classroom rehearsal that conflicted with the many meetings, community events, assemblies, rehearsals and performances regularly scheduled there.

Providing a home for the 150 students in the WAHS orchestra program, the new room gives a stable rehearsal space with no interruptions and cuts down on the costs incurred from the daily moving of instruments and equipment. “The new room gives us the ability to real-ly listen across the orchestra to the other sections and appreciate what the other sections are playing,” said senior Isaac Milliken. “This is going to really help with the quality of our performances.” “It’s great that our very deserving orches-tras now has a space to call their own,” said senior Divia Feinstein.

BUILDING BRIGHT FUTURES

thank you!Thanks to our many generous alumni, parents, community members, businesses and organizations, the WASD Education Foundation’s Return to Glory capital campaign is closer to meeting its goal of $2.7 million. As of November 15, 2014, the amount secured in cash and commitments for the campaign totaled more than $2.2 million, or 81 percent of the goal.

While the campaign is very close to reaching its financial goal and some needs have been met, there are still many needs that have yet to be filled.

Two of the most significant milestones in the campaign to date have been the donation of the Balls Mills Soccer Complex, located along Lycoming Creek Road, to the district earlier this fall, as well securing a $242,837 state grant (see Page 1). As a result of the soccer complex donation, the WASD Education Foundation’s fundraising goal for the Return to Glory capital campaign moved from $3.5 million to $2.7 million.

By securing the soccer complex, it put the district in a position to move from a two-venue to one-venue project at the high school stadium, which will include a new eight-lane track and all-weather football field at STA Stadium. Renovations remain on schedule to be completed by the start of football season in the fall of 2015.

While work is scheduled to begin in the spring following track season, an additional $500,000 is needed to meet the campaign goal.

To learn more about the campaign, or to make a gift to this important project, visit:www.wasd.org/returntoglory.

BUILDING LEADERS Helping students reach their fullest potential often involves a little outside expertise or experience that sometimes fall beyond departmental budgets. The WASD Education Foundation and the WASD Alumni Association partnered this fall to sponsor 18 student-athletes to attend a leadership conference in Loyalsock Township on Oct. 29. The leadership conference was aimed at developing future captains for district teams.

NURTURING EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE

marvin and Jean staiman receive 2014 distinguished alumni awardMarvin H. and Jean R. Staiman, both 1945 graduates, were presented the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award for their extensive involvement and longtime support of the community throughout their lifetime. The two were honored during the district’s regular school board meeting on Oct. 21. The Distinguished Alumni Award was created in 2012 to honor outstanding and significant achievements made by graduates of WAHS.

“It is our privilege to honor Marvin and Jean Staiman in recognition of their tireless efforts for the betterment and advancement of our community and beyond,” said Susan Swank-Caschera, president of the WASD Alumni Association. “We’re proud of the recognition and appreciate the opportunities the Williamsport school district offered us to further our education and life in general,” said Mr. Staiman on behalf of he and his wife.

Led by their strong faith and belief in civic duty, together, the two have been leaving their mark on the community for more than six decades. Deeply involved with organizations to benefit the community and its citizens, the Staimans have helped influence signature movements and decisions that have created Williamsport as it is known today — all of which cross the touchstones of their lives: their Jewish faith, family, and the business, civic and public service communities. From fundraising events and affiliations with a number of boards and committees, the two have lent their time and effort to leave a significant impact on the community.

The WASD Alumni Association operates beneath the umbrella of the WASD Education Foundation.

The mission of the Alumni Association is “to create and build a strong, lasting connection and relationship by providing resources, talents and counsel to Williamsport Area High School alumni and graduating classes.” It began with an ambitious search during the 2011-12 school year for alumni willing to lead an organization responsible for reconnecting their peers with Williamsport Area High School graduates.

For more information, visit www.wasd.org/alumni.

One hundred and ninety-three students from kindergarten through sixth grade participated in and successfully completed the 2014 Summer Reading Program through the James V. Brown Library.

In recognition of their achievement, the WASDEF provided $2,000 to the district to purchase library books in their honor, complete with dedication bookplates on the inside covers. The books were donated to the students’ respective school libraries.

The following is a list of district schools and their corresponding number of successful summer readers: cochran, 36; hepburn-Lycoming, 31; Jackson, 32; stevens, 25; curtin, 41; and Lycoming Valley, 28. The foundation has made it its annual goal to promote and fund literacy efforts. Since 2011, the WASDEF has committed $14,000 to the Summer Reading Program in an effort to add to the collection of new books in district libraries.

REWARDING SUMMER READERS

$6,996 Awarded to 5 ClassroomsThe WASD Education Founda-tion awarded $6,996 to fund five projects as part of its annual Teacher Mini-Grant Program.

It also plans to award $1,500 for one Artist-in-Residence project by seeking funds from the First Community Foundation Part-nership of Pennsylvania through Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) donations.

The program is designed to give district teachers the ability to enhance educational oppor-tunities and activities for stu-dents through innovative and creative projects on an annual basis. Ranging in areas from art to technology to academ-ics, each of the applications awarded exemplifies strength in innovation to enhance the learning experience for stu-dents to the tune of the Foun-dation’s mission.

Projects awarded funding for

the 2014-15 school year are:

• Line: drawn and stitched with amanda mccavour, $1,500, An-drea McDonough Varner, WAHS

• chihuly tree for the court-yard, $1,250, Carrie Bosch, WAMS

• iXL math License for fourth-grade, $1,250, Jennifer Kuzio, Curtin Intermediate School

• tinkering town (a maker-space); $1,497; Sandy Cor-son, Ross Cooper and Sarah Bohnert; Jackson Primary School

• Kinesthetic desks: moving students toward reading suc-cess, $1,500, Marcy Garrison, Stevens Primary School

For more complete descriptions of these projects, or to donate to the program, visit:www.wasd.org/foundation.

2780 West Fourth St.Williamsport, PA 17701

A NEWSLETTER OF THE WILLIAMSPORT AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT EDUCATION FOUNDATION

While over the past year we’ve been following the theme of “A Decade of Growth” in honor of our 10-year anniversary, the same could be said of the year in which that phrase was celebrated, particularly with regard to our Return to Glory capital campaign.

To date, our campaign has brought in more than $2.2 million in pledges and donations over the last 16 months toward a $2.7 million goal for renovations of STA Stadium at the high school. In the world of local education foundations taking on capital campaigns, that is a monumental achievement that has gained national and state-wide attention. The backing of the community for this effort has been tremendous, and we truly appreciate all the support shown. By closing 2014 in a celebration of our “decade of growth” at the Community Arts Center in November, in the company of our donors, partners, families, students, alumni and community, it provided a glimpse at how far we’ve come as an organization. We hope, in reviewing some of these latest achievements in this edition, you’ll want to continue that celebration with us in 2015.

•A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR •

GREGORY L. HAYES, JR.

To receive a bi-monthly e-newsletter featuring WASDEF news, email ghayes@wasd.org

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