Murrieta Rotary Sends Funds to Local Classrooms

The Rotary Club of Murrieta has awarded more than $4,400 in teacher service grants to aid classroom instruction during tight budget times for local schools.

Nearly 50 applications were received for the club's annual program, with 14 teachers at 10 schools gaining a grant for use over the next year.

Funded were requests as small as $80 for social studies texts for a remedial reading program at Warm Springs Middle School to as much as $525 to provide two-foot-long sharks for dissecting in science classes in three classrooms at Thompson Middle School.

The club’s past president, Frank Donahoe, said school officials have told him the grants,  though modest, have made a big impact on classroom instruction over the years Rotary has done the program.  The club’s new president, Patsy Orr, plans a continuation of the program.

Those receiving grants were:

Girlie Ebuen
$400
Murrieta Mesa High School
For purchase of marker boards and software for an experimental student-led math learning experience.

Don Fitzgerald
$435
Murrieta Valley High School
For purchase of equipment used in a new glass casting ceramics class.

Macaria Gonzalez
$355
Murrieta Mesa High School
For a variety of materials for use by students preparing for Advanced Placement U.S. history exams.

Cathleen Hansen
$525
Thompson Middle School
For several dozen baby sharks and dissecting kits for three seventh grade classrooms at the school.  A shark’s anatomy is more developed than the traditional frogs used in science classrooms.

Susan Johnson 
$395
Lisa J. Mails Elementary School
For materials supporting “social thinking” training for teachers who help students develop skills in reacting to social pressures.

Lila Lund 
$260
Shivela Middle School
For replacement headphones used in the math computer lab.

Chris Martin 
$100
Murrieta Valley High School
For support of the Nighthawk solar team, an engineering club at the school where students develop solar-powered vehicles.

Carin McWhorter 
$300
Buchanan Elementary School
For non-fiction reading materials for students.

Shannon Nelson           
$455
Murrieta Elementary School
For materials used by fourth graders in learning to construct electrical circuits in science class.

Grace Poudevigne-Gamble   
$300
Rail Ranch School
For production of a musical by the students’ drama club, including purchase of rights to the play and funds for sets and costumes.

Christine Reddick
$400
Murrieta Elementary School
For materials to be used in the new transitional kindergarten program.  Students are now able to enter kindergarten three months younger than before.

Terri Schilling
$190
E. Hale Curran Elementary School
For software helping kids become better readers and review language and math skills they’ve already been taught.

Patricia Skeans
$80
Warm Springs Middle School
For reading materials more appropriate for social studies learning by remedial reading students.

Mark Zavodnik
$275
Murrieta Elementary School
For a set of 36 “Sign of the Beaver” paperback books shared by five classes.  The book is one of several required literature readings for fourth graders.

Rotary International is a non-profit organization of professionals and leaders in the local community whose 1.2 million volunteers work to improve the community and world.   The Rotary Club of Murrieta was chartered in 1992 and serves the Murrieta Valley.  The club is involved in many local area and several international projects in cooperation with Rotary International, which has as its theme "Service Above Self."

The Murrieta club meets every Monday, except national holidays, at Richie's Diner, 40651 Murrieta Hot Springs Rd., in Murrieta.  "Individuals interested in opportunities for service provided by Rotary are invited to attend one of our lunch meetings," said President Patsy Orr (951-693-5589).  For information regarding Rotary membership and more, please visit www.murrietarotary.org.

—News release submitted by Rotary Club of Murrieta