Education Foundation of Okeechobee wants to help local teachers

Posted 9/8/21

OKEECHOBEE- Local teachers in Okeechobee will have a chance to get much needed classroom supplies at no cost to them.

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Education Foundation of Okeechobee wants to help local teachers

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On Aug. 13 Seacoast Bank donated classroom supplies to the Okeechobee Education Foundation.
On Aug. 13 Seacoast Bank donated classroom supplies to the Okeechobee Education Foundation.

OKEECHOBEE- Local teachers in Okeechobee will have a chance to get much needed classroom supplies at no cost to them.

The Education Foundation of Okeechobee is hosting a launch party for its Pencil Depot at Indian River State College on Sept. 10 at 4 p.m.

At the Pencil Depot, Okeechobee teachers will be provided with a voucher that will give them free access to school supplies.  Teachers who attend the launch party will have ability to custom order their free care package of supplies. The Education Foundation of Okeechobee will also be awarding up to $1500 in laptops, color printers, and docu-cameras to those who attend.

The goal of the Pencil Depot is to help local teachers who have, in the past, had to use their personal funds to buy supplies for their classroom.

The Education Foundation of Okeechobee has been working to raise money for local teachers throughout the summer of 2021. In July the foundation partnered with Publix for the "Tools for Back to School" campaign. Shoppers at the grocery store had the option of donating at the register directly to the foundation as they checked out, with 100% of the funds going straight to local classrooms in Okeechobee.

Earlier this year the Education Foundation of Okeechobee organized Employability Skills and Okeechobee Junior Leadership summer camps with help from the Okeechobee County Economic Development Corporation and the Economic Council of Okeechobee.

The summer camps were put together in a matter of weeks following the school district receiving money to implement more programs for students. Over 80 students applied to fill 15 slots of the summer camps. Organizers ended up adding extra sessions to accommodate more students.

Those who partook in the Employability Skills program worked with CareerSource Heartland and heard directly local employers on what they’re looking for when hiring employees. The 9th through 11th graders in the camp also got to practice their interview skills when applying for jobs in the future.

Members of the Okeechobee Junior Leadership summer program traveled around Okeechobee meeting current leaders and getting a behind the scenes look of the day-to-day work that goes into running the county government. That behind the scenes look included stops at the Board of County Commission and a meeting with Judge Bill Wallace at the Okeechobee County Courthouse.

The junior leaders gave presentations to school board members and local business leaders at the end of the two week period on their ideas for things to improve both in Okeechobee and the world as a whole. Ideas discussed in the presentations included promoting food recovery to eliminate waste, improving school lunches, funding the construction of a dog park in the community, making Okeechobee more inclusive and more.

The foundation’s Pencil Depot Launch Party kicks off at 4 p.m. on Sept. 10 at IRSC’s Dixon Hendry Campus in Okeechobee.

Okeechobee, schools, supplies

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