2024 Grants 

Where Everyone Belongs (W.E.B.)

$28,805

This year-long program pairs 5th grade students starting at East Aurora Middle School with trained 8th grade mentors, helping them feel cared for and supported during the transition. The W.E.B. program aligns with the District’s “Respectful Relationships” value as well as several NYS Social Emotional Learning Standards, helping to further foster an inclusive, connected school culture. Additionally, peer mentors are able to build build leadership, collaboration, and presentation skills.

W.E.B. activities include:

• – Locker help
• – Decades Dance
• – Halloween bingo
• – Homework catch-up
• – Thanksgiving cookies and crafts
• – Ice skating
• – Social Emotional Learning lesson
• – End-of-year social
• – Final exam study session

On a national level, schools that implement W.E.B. programs cite concrete reductions in bullying, failing grades, and suspensions.

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Sustainable Agriculture Program: Phase 2

$18,905

The Sustainable Agriculture Program educates and empowers our students and community to support local food production that works within natural systems, yielding environmental and economic benefits. The program aims to create lifelong advocates, producers, and consumers of local food that’s healthy and sustainable. Besides growing plants and crops, students have tended chickens, turkeys, and bees and sold eggs and honey from the farm. 

This course takes core ideas from earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics and has students apply them in a real-world agricultural setting. Students have to design and build their own experiments and make them work, constantly learning and adjusting to changing conditions and circumstances.

Empowering Readers: A Book Vending Machine for Parkdale

$7,239

With the new book vending machine at Parkdale Elementary, teachers and administrators implemented a reading incentive program that allows students to earn tokens to purchase books from the machine. This helps promote literacy and an enthusiastic culture of reading that extends beyond classroom and library walls, giving students a unique way to engage with quality literature while bolstering their reading skills and habits.

Playful Possibilities: A Playground for All Ages and Abilities

$32,330

The brand-new Pre-K and students with disabilities playground at Parkdale Elementary will be designed to foster inclusivity, fun, and growth for every child. This transformative space will be where laughter and learning know no bounds. Our entire community will have the opportunity to experience the joy of an inclusive playground that caters to the diverse needs of the current Parkdale school population. Construction is slated to start in September 2026.

Low Impact Fitness Room

$10,185.37

Students and athletes at East Aurora High School now have a brand-new space for TRX, yoga, dance, and bodyweight training. The space is also more conducive for adaptive PE and gives athletic trainers a dedicated space for rehabilitation activities.