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Lowe’s Community Service and Campus Improvement Grants

March 1st, 2011

The 2011 SkillsUSA and Lowe’s community service and campus improvement grants were recently announced. Congratulations to all successful applicants.

Campus Improvement: Arkansas – Arkansas Career Training Institute; California – Warren High School; Colorado – Sheridan High School; Florida – Belleview High School; Illinois – Elgin Community College; Illinois – Jo Daviess Carroll Area Vocational Center; Iowa – Central Campus; Kansas – Labette Community College; Maine – Bath Regional Career & Technical Center; Maine- Tri-County Technical Center; Missouri – Southwest Area Career Center; New Jersey – Salem County Career & Technical High School; New York – E.J. Milliken Technical Center; Oklahoma – Eastern Oklahoma County Technical Center; Oregon – Centennial High School; South Carolina – Sumter County Career Center; Washington – Elma High School; and, Wisconsin – Fox Valley Technical College.

Community Service: California – John F. Kennedy High School; Georgia – Lumpkin County High School; Illinois – Fox Valley Career Center; Kansas – Hutchinson Community College; Massachusetts – Greater Lawrence Technical School; Michigan – Eaton ISD Career Preparation Center; New Jersey – Bergen County Academies; New Jersey – Camden County Technical Schools; North Dakota – North Valley Career and Technical Center; Oklahoma – Canadian Valley Technology Center; Pennsylvania – Lycoming Career & Technology Center; Tennessee – Haywood High School, County Career & Technical Division; Tennessee – Tennessee Technology Center at Crossville; Tennessee – Tennessee Technology Center at Elizabethton; Tennessee – Tennessee Technology Center at Hartsville; and, Wisconsin – Lincoln High School.

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Help Lowe’s give away $1 million to four great environmental charities

January 13th, 2011

Lowe’s and the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation are kicking off the New Year by donating $1 million to four environmentally focused charities as a part of their first online community giving campaign.

The charities, AMERICAN FORESTS, Keep America Beautiful, National Park Foundation and Water.org, will each automatically receive a $100,000 grant. The remaining $600,000 will be distributed based on the percentage of consumer votes each charity receives at www.lowes.com/give and on Lowe’s Facebook page. The voting will take place from Jan. 9-21.

Here’s how the four charities will be using the money:

American Forests
Your vote will help American Forests plant more than six million trees in 2011 and educate the public about the tremendous environmental benefits of healthy forests.

Keep America Beautiful
Your vote will help KAB host its signature community improvement program, the Great American Cleanup, this spring. In 2010, volunteers participated in 30,000 events in 33,700 communities.

National Park Foundation
Your vote will support national park restoration and preservation efforts, connect underserved communities to their parks, and give disadvantaged children the opportunity to experience their national parks for the first time.

Water.org
Your vote will specifically support Water.org’s long-term development efforts in Haiti to increase the level of access to sustainable, safe water and sanitation services for 50,000 people.

Everyone is eligible to vote once per day, so make sure to go to www.Lowes.com/give starting Sunday, January 9.

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SkillsUSA Announces New Lowe’s Grants for 2011

October 1st, 2010

Lowe's Toolbox for Education LogoSkillsUSA is pleased to announce a continuing partnership with Lowe’s. As part of their overall grant to SkillsUSA, Lowe’s will be awarding grants to local chapters of up to $10,000 each for community service projects or campus improvement projects conducted during 2011.

Schools can apply for grants as a whole school, or as an individual training program. Schools may also team up with another SkillsUSA chapter at a different school on a larger project.

There are three grant categories:

  • Community Service Grants to improve an aspect of your local community
  • Campus Improvement Grants to enhance your school campus or technical lab
  • CareerSafe Online training vouchers to promote safety among technical students

To see projects that have been successfully funded over the past several years, visit the Lowe’s Web page (link below) for project summaries. Lowe’s will be reviewing the top applications as selected by a SkillsUSA staff committee and selecting the schools to receive the funds.

Grant applications must be submitted by December 1, 2010. Notification of successful applicants will be in February 2011. Projects may be done during the spring or fall semesters in 2011 and must be completed by November 30, 2011.

If you have questions on the program, please contact Lowe’s grants manager Carol Lowery at 641-512-0504 or clowery@skillsusa.org

For more information and to reach the online application, go to:
www.skillsusa.org/educators/lowes.shtml.

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“Lunch and Learn” Goodwill Tour and More

April 15th, 2010

On Wednesday, March 31, Kelly Persons of Lowe’s hosted a lunch for select Lowe’s vendor partners to become more familiar with SkillsUSA and find opportunities to support our students and mission. The event was held at Time Warner Arena, the home of the NBA Charlotte Bobcats, in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina. The impressive list of attendees included representatives from Georgia-Pacific, Werner Ladder, Jimmie Johnson Foundation, Ettain Group, Presbyterian Healthcare, Hitachi Power Tools, Valspar and Compass Group.

The group convened in a concourse of the arena. A section of an interior arena wall included a photographic mural dedicated to the community service activities of Lowe’s. Across from the mural, in one of the food galleries, stand pillars wrapped in pictures of the major programs Lowe’s supports, and sure enough, there was the column highlighting SkillsUSA.

National officers Stephen Lupton and Zia Green did a wonderful job presenting the mission and current activities of the organization illustrated by their own experiences. They stressed to the executives that the connection with business and industry often begins at the local level. After a question and answer session, national staff members and I met with the guest companies to explore specific opportunities to get involved. There was a lot of positive feedback and interest in supporting our students and attending state conferences, in addition to some bigger plans to attend NLSC. The event was a success, and I believe Lowe’s just created a new best practice for future Goodwill Tours.

All this came about because of YDF member Kelly Persons opening doors as an ambassador for SkillsUSA. Thanks to Kelly and the Lowe’s team for their dedication and support of our mission.

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Pin and T-shirt Design Winners

April 15th, 2010

Congratulations to Amanda Thaxton, the 2010 winner of the SkillsUSA National Pin Design Competition and to Ashley Thompson, the 2010 winner of the SkillsUSA National T-Shirt Competition. Amanda and Ashley are graphic design and production students at South Effingham High School in Guyton, Ga. They will each be recognized along with their advisor, Craig Owens, at the opening session of the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Kansas City this June. Their high school will receive $10,000 from Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation for classroom and equipment improvements. Each participant at NLSC will receive a conference t-shirt and conference pin showcasing the designs through the Lowe’s sponsorship.

See their designs here: www.skillsusa.org/compete/pindesign.shtml

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Great National TV Coverage

April 6th, 2009

We received some great TV exposure on Saturday, April 4 and a great testimony about SkillsUSA from SPEED Channel reporter and SkillsUSA alumna, Wendy Venturini.

SkillsUSA was in attendance at the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway where Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Impala SS showcased a Tough Tools for Cool Schools paint scheme.

Thanks to all those who work with the Lowe’s partnership that made this coverage possible! The interview is below:

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Highlights

April 1st, 2009
  • The mood at the ACTE (Association of Career and Technical Education) Policy and Planning Seminar in Washington, D.C. from March 9-11 was hopeful but not assured. Speaker after speaker said that career and technical education’s (CTE) moment is now. Some speakers said that to take advantage of CTE’s opportunities, we need to move on increasing CTE funding in the next two years. In light of the recession and the new administration, policymakers understand that America needs a skilled work force, that it needs to retrain its existing work force, and that education to prepare students for further education and to keep them from dropping out of school is what CTE is all about. Staffers from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee talked about meeting these needs. So, too, did Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Secretary Duncan spoke of the administration’s dedication to finding the best practices for stopping dropouts and also sending students on to higher education. The Secretary frequently referenced technical and community colleges during his remarks. I believe CTE has his ear, but there’s much more talking to do.
  • I spoke on March 13 during the HVACR and Plumbing Instructor Workshop in Lansdowne, Virginia. Several national staffers were also there during the conference in the trade show booth. There were 325 instructors in attendance from across the country.
  • Staff attended the American Technical Education Association Conference in Chattanooga, Tenneessee to talk about SkillsUSA’s service learning model and the Work Force Ready System. Staff reported considerable interest in both SkillsUSA and the assessments.
  • SkillsUSA University seminars for national conference are up by 15. We’re now at 82 seminars.
  • TECHSPO booth reservations are up to 127.
  • We conducted our first Web conference with the SkillsUSA WorldTeam on March 19. With me on the call were Peter Carey, our official delegate, and Mark Claypool, our team leader. It was a great meeting. We covered a lot of information regarding all aspects of the students’ responsibilities and got an update on where they are with training and preparation for the 2009 WorldSkills Competition in Calgary. They asked many questions, were very enthusiastic and appear to be a very committed group of young people. To date, we have selected 12 members and have six more to go. We are working to get their bios and photos posted on the WorldTeam Web site. To view them and to learn more about the Calgary event, please visit this link.

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Highlights

March 15th, 2009

  • On March 4, I was back in Washington at the National Press Club for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) event announcing the Manufacturing Skills Certification System. Board member Emily DeRocco moderated. That only seemed fair. After all, the whole initiative came out of her shop at NAM. It was great to meet with old friends and leaders of sponsoring organizations including Steve Mendes of the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, Leo Reddy of the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing and Ray Shook of the American Welding Society. For the NAM news release, please click on http://www.nam.org/NewsFromtheNAM/SkillsCertificationSystem.aspx.
  • Our long-time friend Rocco Marano, now retired from the National Association of Secondary School Principals, stopped by on February 26 to talk about a new project he’s taken on with the Energy Education Foundation. The foundation is working to get students involved in local and online initiatives for energy and Rocco believes SkillsUSA is a natural fit.
  • In current travel news, board member and YDF Chairman Greg Rintala visited the national center recently to review some things for the finance committee and to work on the agenda for the YDF meeting in California.
  • And, I just returned from Atlanta where Lowe’s and Kobalt Tools, in partnership with SkillsUSA staff, kicked off the new Tough Tools for Cool Schools program on March 6. Lowe’s is donating more than $300,000 worth of Kobalt tools to 500 SkillsUSA building and construction trades programs across the country. The first set of tools was delivered by three-time NASCAR champion, Jimmie Johnson to Lovejoy High School just prior to the March 8 Kobalt Tools 500 NASCAR Spring Cup Series race. Johnson’s No. 48 Impala SS will also showcase a SkillsUSA logo and a special Tough Tools for Cool Schools paint scheme when he races on April 5 at the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Special thanks to SkillsUSA Georgia director Gayle Silvey for her work on this event.

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Sed de Saber Grants

January 1st, 2009

SkillsUSA and Lowe’s are jointly awarding Sed de Saber grants to local SkillsUSA chapters. We are actively seeking schools to implement Sed de Saber as a community service program and schools can apply for up to $10,000 to implement it. 

The Sed de Saber learning system is an interactive and proven English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) tool that helps break the language barrier. It fosters a more skilled work force and ultimately reduces accidents and fatalities. The program is available in English for Construction, English for Hospitality or English for Everyone. The learning centers around a leap-frog style learning unit that is fun, interactive and portable (much like the leap-frog computer and games).

How Schools Can Implement Sed de Saber
Apply for a Sed de Saber grant for up to $10,000. To apply, please complete the grant application at this link.

The application deadline is January 30, 2009. Grants may be used during spring 2009 or fall 2009. 

A SkillsUSA chapter can determine how the Sed de Saber program is implemented. For example, the learners might meet once a week after school and include students plus family members who want to improve their English, or members of the community who want to learn or improve their English. This could be a mentoring program for younger students too.

Typically, Sed de Saber participants sign out their units through the school library and take them home for practice, taking them back each week for a group session. Our students, who can serve as mentors and instructors for the program, will lead the weekly meeting to answer questions or help learners overcome any challenges.

Length of Program
The completion time for the program ranges from six weeks to four months, depending upon the individual learners enrolled in the program and how often the group meets. 

Cost of Sed de Saber
The program costs approximately $545 per learner (free with a Lowe’s grant), which includes a computer, booklets, a tutoring-by-phone support system and a pre/post program learner assessment. Once SkillsUSA and Lowe’s approve an application, Sed de Saber will assign an account manager to help plan and implement the community service learning program. We suggest working with a small group of 5 to 10 learners at a time.

Questions? Karen Perrino at kperrino@skillsusa.org or 703-737-0610. Thanks for your help in getting word of this program out to SkillsUSA local chapters!

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