Your turn: Golden Apple aims to keep great teachers teaching
The Golden Apple Foundation of Rockford thanks the Rockford Register Star, Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence (NICNE) and the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois (CFNIL) for returning and re-imagining the Excalibur/Excelsior awards.
The Dec. 14 event at Prairie Street Brewhouse was joyous and inspiring. We are honored and grateful to be the 2023 Excelsior Award recipient. We truly admire finalists, Hoo Haven and Rockford Promise, who do great things in and for the region.
Our mission is to inspire, celebrate and support excellence in education in Boone and Winnebago counties. We love the support we get from our community and strive to “support local” where we can, from selling tins of discounts to local businesses to holding fundraising events at local venues.
To do what we do successfully, our little local nonprofit with 1.5 staff members needs help. We are thankful for and share this award with our “village” of helpers.
We are immensely grateful for volunteers: teachers past & present, board members, family and community members. Hundreds of volunteers sort nominations, observe and interview teachers, evaluate grant applications and help with fundraisers.
With the growth of our programs, we need even more help. If you desire to make a difference in local education, reach out to us.
We appreciate businesses that support community volunteerism, allowing employees to assist with apple distribution and classroom observations! If your workplace has a volunteer program/policy, please consider our volunteer opportunities as a great way to actively support local educators. Or ask them to consider sponsoring a program.
Bravo to Golden Apple Academy members, who promote our organization, support fellow teachers and help deliver apples, mail letters, observe classrooms and attend events.
Hurray for our active board that supports us, not only monetarily, but also with knowledge, time and efforts in fundraising, delivering apples, observing classrooms and reviewing grant applications.
Kudos to schools supporting teachers in quests for Golden Apple awards, grants or scholarships. And to those teachers’ students and families for nominating and encouraging them. Teachers have always been essential, but what they do has changed.
No longer do you see one individual in front of a classroom of students in desks perfectly lined up in rows day in and day out. Now, teachers collaborate with peers, therapists, reading specialists and paraprofessionals. They’re on the floor with students or circulating the classroom checking in with each child. They work hard to gain students’ trust to facilitate learning.
They are nurse, social worker, coach, advocate, mentor and hall monitor in addition to instructor.
Burnout and attrition are issues. At Golden Apple, we hope to fill up teachers’ depleted “buckets” to keep great teachers teaching. After all, teachers build the foundation for all learning and teach all future community members, from clerks, homemakers or construction workers to engineers, business owners or CEOs.
If you can read this column, thank a teacher.
Thank you, sponsors and donors, for helping us fund grants; pay tuition; host a magnificent banquet honoring educators; and continue doing work we love: letting teachers know how important and appreciated they are.
This year, we’re funding 59 amazing grant applications for 67 teachers to benefit hundreds of students. We’ve grown from granting $5,000 to more than $42,000 in 2024. In 2020, we partnered with the family of our co-founder, the late Don Zimmerman, and Rockford University, to add a scholarship to our programs to provide tuition for a local teacher to earn a master’s degree at Rockford University.
We recognize teachers, an outstanding principal and an individual or business that supports volunteerism in schools (The Jan Jones Service Award, in memory of our former board member). With your assistance, more teachers will receive enriching resources and funds to enhance literacy, STEM, special education, arts and other opportunities for their students.
As a small but mighty organization, we need to continue growing our financial support to keep our doors open to do what we do.
We welcome local companies and community members to celebrate excellence in education with us by sponsoring and attending the annual banquet (scheduled this year for April 26, at the Tebala Center), purchasing 2024 Rockford City Tins (offering discounts at 22 locally-owned restaurants), attending our fundraisers throughout the year; or making financial contributions.
Go to goldenappleofrockford.square.site to make a donation or to buy tins, and contact Executive Director Jennifer Stark at jennifer@goldenappleofrockford.com for sponsorship opportunities.
Jennifer Stark is the executive director of the Golden Apple Foundation of Rockford, the 2023 recipient of the Excelsior Award.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: Golden Apple aims to keep great teachers teaching
