The Red Deer Regional Catholic School Education Foundation has announced $25,500 in funding to go toward 13 projects in the division.
A total of 10 projects are earmarked for specific schools in the division while three projects are division-wide initiatives that will be funded this year. Funding ranges from $500 for a school chapel at St. Thomas Aquinas Middle School in Red Deer to $3,100 for a division-wide beginner band day allowing all students in Grade 5 to spend a day in a band workshop.
The foundation was created in 2009 by the division to fund projects that normally wouldn't receive government funding, said Jeanne Davis, communications director for Red Deer Regional Catholic Schools. The foundation's creation coincided with 100 years of Catholic education in Central Alberta.
“That's a key criteria. If it can be funded by the government then (the foundation) wouldn't support it,” Davis said.
“After we celebrated 100 years of Catholic education in Central Alberta, the belief was that to commemorate this 100-year anniversary (the board) wanted to do something very special and so they started this education foundation. They are more and more popular, these education foundations. These foundations are raising money to support initiatives that … just don't fall into curriculum,” she said.
The Red Deer Catholic foundation started out with an endowment fund that had contributions from a variety of sources. A house was donated to the foundation and the proceeds were plowed into it. The endowment currently has about $200,000 in it.
“The whole concept behind the endowment fund was that people who want to put us in their will, that's an option for them to do. A lot of people that went to our schools or sent their kids to our schools are now considering that,” Davis said.
The foundation also raises about $30,000 to $40,000 per year, which is given out annually. The last amount was raised at a fundraising dinner earlier this spring. A total of $5,000 of this year's fundraising was placed in the endowment fund.
