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Unsung Educators Scholarship
Over the past few months I have been working on a new and very important project. Finally I was able to announce it publicly from the dais at this week's meeting. I have created a scholarship fund as a way to honor a very special group of Loudoun County Public School employees.
This is the Unsung Educators Scholarship, and it is a $5,000 annual award.
The Elaine Avington Griffin Unsung Educators Scholarship honors the role that custodial, facilities, food service, transportation and maintenance employees play in the health and safety of our children every day. They aren’t the teachers and principals that we usually think of. They aren’t in the classrooms and their names don’t come home on paper in backpacks. Yet with every good meal, every safe bus ride, every day spent in a clean building that is comfortable summer and winter, they give our children their best chance to learn. These unsung educators are the people who literally create Loudoun Schools’ Climate for Success by making our schools safe and healthy.Please follow the link to read all the details.
It has been a joy for me to get to know many custodians and bus drivers and kitchen staff personally because I spend a lot of time in the schools. But most parents don’t have an opportunity to get to know them, and often their work is overlooked as a result. I was moved to create this scholarship after years of seeing the difficult and yet excellent work that so many employees do that is rarely discussed in PTO meetings or School Board meetings.
I first announced the scholarship last week to the transportation employees (mostly bus drivers) at their annual end-of-year picnic and awards ceremony. A few days later I announced it at the food service banquet to the great kitchen staff we have around the county. It has received a little press so far (Leesburg Today), and I hope to see much more in the next few weeks.
I owe many thanks to two terrific local organizations who have worked with me throughout the spring to make this happen. The Loudoun Education Foundation, led by Chairman Paul Lin and Executive Director Dawn Meyer, were instrumental in putting shape to my inspiration. The LEF Board of Trustees deserves tremendous credit for agreeing to take responsibility for the administration of the scholarship, and for expanding its reach beyond what I had hoped. The primary role of the Northern Virginia Community Foundation is to accept and manage the contributions that the fund will receive, but they have also shown me tremendous possibilities for reaching out to different sectors of the Loudoun community.
I am very pleased that the Unsung Educators Scholarship will have the experience and guidance of NCVF and LEF, two established non-profit leaders in Loudoun, from the very beginning. Their involvement is a key component to the success of this project and an assurance to the community that their contributions to honor the LCPS support staff will be expertly managed.
I am seeking contributions to the Fund from many sources, including local businesses, labor organizations and private donors. However, I hope that the primary source of contributions will be Loudoun County’s 75 Parent-Teacher Organizations (or PTAs as the case may be). I am a former president of an elementary PTA, and I know that those parent volunteers often wish to thank the support staff for their schools but aren’t sure how. Geographic, cultural and language barriers often stand in the way. With a gift to the Unsung Educators Fund, PTOs can express their appreciation to these important people in their children’s lives in a tangible, meaningful way. When a PTA makes a contribution, the LEF will notify those employees of the contribution to let them know that they are truly valued.
I will write more about the scholarship over the next several days, and I will reach out to many people for help as we get the momentum going for what I hope will be an everlasting benefit to these LCPS employees and their children.
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