Find out who is smarter than a Gaston County Fifth Grader this Thursday
On Thursday, the Gaston County Education Foundation will host its annual, ‘Are You Smarter Than a Gaston County Fifth Grader,’ event.
According to the foundation’s Executive Director Amy Spencer, Lowell Elementary School and its sponsor Dominion Energy will return to defend their title as last year’s champions.
The Gaston County Education Foundation began hosting the competition around 2010 as a way to raise money for grants that go to teachers and classrooms, Spencer said.
Since then, the event has become an integral part of fundraising for the school system’s grant cycle, and raises roughly $40,000 every year.
The funding goes specifically to the Ron L. Ensley grant and The Jennie Stultz grant.
“Ron Ensley was an executive with American and Efird and a long time board member of the Gaston County Education Foundation. He has remain(ed) a very large supporter of Gaston County public Schools and is an Emeritus member of the Gaston County Education Foundations board,” Spencer said.
The Ron L. Ensley award is given to individual teachers and teaching teams that have creative ideas that they would like to implement into the classroom but cannot bring to life due to lack of funding, according to Spencer.
The Jennie Stultz Grant for Arts Education was established after the Gaston County Education Foundation’s first Executive Director Jennie Stultz.
“Jennie loved the arts. As funding for the arts continues to decrease, the Board of Directors felt that this would be a great area to establish a grant to honor her,” Spencer said.
Funds are raised from the event in three ways, including donations from businesses that choose to sponsor the event, participating adults who pay to have a team in the game, and entrance fees for spectators who come to watch them compete.
Tickets to watch the event cost $5 per person or $15 for a family of four, and can be purchased at the door of the event, which is set to take place at Stuart Cramer High School from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 8.
Lowell Elementary School and its sponsor Dominion Energy will be defending their winning title against 17 other schools, as a total of 18 teams, each composed of two 5th-grade student-coaches and four representatives from the sponsoring businesses, go head to head.
Participating schools and sponsors in this year’s event include:
Caromont Health and New Hope Elementary
Dominion Energy and Lowell Elementary
GSM Services and Pleasant Ridge Elementary
Steelfab and Catawba Heights Elementary
McAdenville Woman’s Club and McAdenville Elementary
Encore Bank and Robinson Elementary
Fleetnet America and W.B. Beam Intermediate
GEMS and Chapel Grove Elementary
East Gastonia Rotary and North Belmont Elementary
Wells Fargo and Sherwood Elementary
Firestone Fibers and Textile and Sadler Elementary
Tindol Subaru and Gardner Park Elementary
Clariant Corp and Rankin Elementary
Piedmont Lithium and Belmont Central Elementary
NextGen and Kiser Elementary
Courage Kia and Brookside Elementary
Rotary Club of Gastonia and Bess Elementary
Freightliner and Pinewood Elementary
The top three teams from this year’s storybook themed game will walk away with first, second, or third place trophies.
Participating teams will be dressed up according to their team’s chosen storybook theme.
The event will also have a mascot dance-off, the winner of which will walk away with a disco ball trophy, and an award will be given for the team with the best theme and costumes.
“It’s the loudest and most fun event in Gaston County. We have a great time. The kids are excited, the teams are excited, everybody wants to win,” Spencer said.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Find out who is smarter than a Gaston County Fifth Grader on Thursday
