LCEF Presents First McSwain Team Teacher Awards
November 30, 2022
The Lee County Education Foundation, with support from the Worthy Lands Trust, presented the first McSwain Team Teacher Awards to 10 outstanding Lee County elementary teaching teams Wednesday afternoon. Education Foundation board members, Board of Education member Sandra Bowen, Lee County School leadership, winning team members and their principals all attended an award reception at W.B. Wicker Elementary School.
Winning teams’ students showed exceptional growth and proficiency in their team subject. Each team member received a certificate of appreciation and a monetary award for his/her exemplary performance as an educator. Awards were presented in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade reading, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade math, 5th grade science, as well as kindergarten, 1stand 2nd grade mCLASS growth and proficiency.
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LCEF Announces Durable Skills Project Sponsored by First Bank
October 3, 2022
Sanford, NC - The Lee County Education Foundation proudly announces the formation and implementation of The Durable Skills Project. First Bank has committed to giving the Lee County Education Foundation $50,000 to fund this newly announced initiative in Lee County. A program formed through a partnership with Lee County Schools and the Boys & Girls Club of Central Carolina, the Durable Skills Project will reach 120 students across the 3 Lee County Middle Schools. It begins this week at East Lee Middle School, SanLee Middle School, and West Lee Middle School, teaching lifelong usable skills for the real world.
The Durable Skills Project provides support to middle schoolers through mentorship and programming geared towards life skills like effective verbal communication, self-control, and goal setting. Utilizing established, proven Boys and Girls Club curriculum with an added focus on communication, the Durable Skills Project will help students build a framework for long-term success. Trained Boys and Girls Club staff will be on the middle school campuses meeting in person with students and leading them through this innovative program.
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First Bank’s Rob Patterson joins Lee County Education Foundation’s board
March 4, 2022
SANFORD — Rob Patterson, the Regional President of First Bank in Sanford, has joined the board of directors of the Lee County Education Foundation, Chairman Susan Keller has announced.
“I am personally honored to be a part of this outstanding organization and hope to make a contribution enhancing the educational opportunities of our young people in Lee County,” Patterson said. “First Bank has long embraced education as the silver bullet to improving the quality of life of the communities that we serve. We take this responsibility seriously and continue to support educational initiatives with both our time and financial resources.”
The Foundation, organized in 2003 as a 501 (c) 3 non-profit, works to mobilize financial resources and fund programs to improve Lee County student achievement. Since its inception, LCEF has provided gifts and grants of more than $1 million to teachers and schools within the Lee County Schools system.
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Lee County Education Foundation, Worthy Lands Trust team up for second $150,000 grant to Lee County schools
November 17, 2021
SANFORD — Not long after it was formed, back in 2003, the Lee County Education Foundation began awarding small grants to local teachers.
A few hundred dollars here. A thousand or so there.
Founder Dennis Wicker’s vision, though, was always much bigger.
On Thursday, in the atrium of W.B. Wicker Elementary School, LCEF Chairman Susan Keller distributed checks totaling $150,000 to the principals of each of the 17 schools in the Lee County Schools district. In awarding the grants — thanks to a partnership, for the second year in a row, with the Worthy Lands Trust of Sanford — LCEF surpassed a significant milestone: including the small grants early on, the series of $50,000 “Head of Class” grants awarded to elementary schools beginning in 2011 and the $75,000 given during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and then again Thursday, the foundation has now contributed more than $1 million directly to schools in the county.
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Lee County Education Foundation announces $150,000 COVID relief grant to Lee County principals
SANFORD — The coronavirus pandemic shuttered North Carolina schools last spring and has left students and teachers scrambling to catch up this fall.
After another victim of COVID-19 — the Lee County Education Foundation’s annual “Head of Class” award — was canceled, the organization decided to pivot, and with a generous gift from another local foundation, create a way to help each of Lee County’s public schools during an unprecedented time of need.
The result: the Education Foundation has increased its annual $50,000 Head of Class gift to $75,000, and with a $75,000 match from the Worthy Lands Trust — the foundation created by the late Ernest and Ruby McSwain of Sanford — is giving the principals of each of Lee County’s 17 schools funds to use specifically in response to the pandemic.
Each school will receive a cash donation from the foundations’ joint effort in amounts ranging from $2,000 to $11,800.
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INSPIRED | Head of Class, Deep River Elementary
OCTOBER 31, 2019 — Allison Cooper lives and breathes Deep River Elementary.
For Cooper, a teaching assistant and bus driver at Deep River, the day begins at 6:20 a.m. with her bus route. Then she's on to her classroom where she goes over her notes before helping Mrs. Coggins divide the class into reading groups. Before long, it's time for lunch, and she needs to help guide 200 kids coming into and out of the cafeteria. Then it's back to the classroom for a couple hours, and then she's back on the bus. Her day ends around 3:30 p.m.
“We work hard here,” Cooper explained. “Everybody puts in a huge effort to teach our kids, and we care about them a lot.”
Joyce Williams is another person for whom Deep River means the world. As the school's head custodian, Williams is responsible for many of the things most people take for granted – always providing a good first impression by making sure the school's entryway is clean, for example, and keeping up with things like water fountains and bathrooms.
“Deep River is special to me because we're like a family here,” Williams said. “It's not just about the teachers, it's about the cafeteria workers, the custodians, the teachers, everyone. If one of us sees a child running down the hall or something, we're able to treat them just like a teacher would.”
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