By Trevor Andrews, Reporter
The Grand Public Schools Foundation hosted a Harvest event on Sept 22. A Silent auction was to be held alongside the Harvest event. The Silent Auction began on Sept 12, and ended on Sept 22.
Carrie Hooker-Leep, Director of the GIPS Foundations said, “The goal was to raise funds for our scholarship program.”
Scholarships are awarded to students who fill out applications; scholarships have certain guidelines that students must meet, as well as an essay included with them, Hooker-Leep said.
“We have hundreds of scholarships to provide,” she added.
Hooker-Leep said that the money will also be going to emergency programs like shoes for children or uniforms.
“There are hundreds of items such as 100s of days of school balloons, an islander pride spirit tunnel, and a diamond necklace,” she said.
Hooker-Leep said that all items sold at the auction are donated from people and businesses alike in Grand Island.
She added that there are items that anybody in Grand Island would be interested in buying.
“The harvest event was built around the need to raise additional funds, but also it was also to honor individuals that have been an integral part of the foundation such as Marv Maurer,” Hooker-Leep said.
She said that the GIPS Foundation goal was to raise about $70,000 to $80,000 through the auction.
She said that the GIPS Foundation has also done a staff campaign where they’ve asked people who were working with GIPS to donate money.
“We have also sent out information to the community about what we are doing, and ask them to donate,” Hooker-Leep added.
She said that 100% of the money raised from the auction will go to the mission.
“Our short-term goal is to be able to fill all the needs of students who need scholarships immediately,” Hooker-Leep said, “our long term goal is to build additional scholarships, and to provide students an opportunity to have the best education, and continued education.”
She said that the students themselves give them motivation to provide children with opportunities.
If readers are interested in donating to the GIPS Foundation, they can go to https://gipsfoundation.org/how-to-help/donate.html.
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