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Lowe's Grants for 2009
2009 Lowe’s SkillsUSA
Community Service Grant Schools
Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation is awarding service grants of up to $10,000 each to 19 local SkillsUSA chapters for innovative projects or enhancements within their communities. Here are the projects:
Arizona
Peoria High School in Peoria
SkillsUSA membership: 40 students and teachers
Project: Students will build an enclosed project trailer and fill it with tools, supplies and project materials. The mobile project trailer will allow students to easily assist local partners, who support under-privileged families, with any remodeling or building of structures around the community. The mobile trailer will also be utilized with local elementary school students in promoting career and technical education as well.
California
Central Valley High School in Ceres
SkillsUSA membership: 26 students and teachers
Project: Students will renovate Smyrna Park Rose Garden by removing overgrown bushes and an old trellis. The students will also install an automatic irrigation system to provide improved water conservation and build a free standing shade structure for the public to utilize the park, even in hot summer days.
Delaware
Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown
SkillsUSA membership: 1200 students and teachers
Project: Students will launch a recycling outreach program that is dedicated to sharing the benefits of recycling with four other schools in the community. Last year, the students began a recycling program at the school and currently recycle over 19,000 pounds each month and the goal is to help other schools in the state develop their own self-sustaining recycling program.
Georgia
Sonoraville High School in Calhoun
SkillsUSA membership: 70 students and teachers
Project: The students will construct hiking and mountain bike trails with walking bridges on watersheds to the lake and a 200’ bridge over a portion of the lake with fish attractors, duck boxes and views of wildlife feeders and beaver dams. An outdoor classroom will also be built including native plant information for students of all ages to have better access and to become more educated about the ecosystem.
Idaho
Pocatello Senior High School in Pocatello
SkillsUSA membership: 17 students and teachers
Project: The automotive students will develop A+ Auto Safety Inspections by creating a checklist of inspections to perform and will rent a vacant store in town to provide safety inspections for local community members. This hands-on training experience also allows instructors to assess students’ performance for future career opportunities in a real life setting.
Illinois
Peoria Alternative High School in Peoria
SkillsUSA membership: 81 students and teachers
Project: The students will beautify a local church’s community center and another church’s pre-school play area and grounds. The first phase will include clean up of the grounds of trash, dead plants and leaves the second phase will be to landscape and plant flowers in both locations
Massachusetts
Montachusett Regional Vocational School in Fitchburg
SkillsUSA membership: 963 students and teachers
Project: The students will revitalize West Fitchburg by providing an area for children and families to play at Moran Field. Currently the field has become overgrown and in ill repair so it is not utilized by local community members. Renovations to the park include new sheds, fencing, masonry, signage, trash bins and playground equipment repairs.
Missouri
Macon Area Vocational and Technical School in Macon
SkillsUSA membership: 49 students and teachers
Project: The students will revitalize and improve the safety of the Macon Family Literacy Center. Improvements to the facility include new windows, handicapped accessible ramp, new counter tops and stoves, double ovens, vanities, light fixtures, murals and hanging artwork. Also included in the plans are providing a new playground surface and landscaping for the center.
Ranken Technical College in St. Louis
SkillsUSA membership: 1,110 students and teachers
Project: Students in carpentry, plumbing and HVAC will build a three bedroom and two and one half bathroom home in the community of North City. This new home is part of a project to revitalize the local community. The need for affordable housing in this area is great, as much of the existing housing is up to 100 years old, vacant, deteriorating or abandoned.
Nebraska
Bennington High School in Bennington
SkillsUSA membership: 22 students and teachers
Project: The students are leading the entire school district in a major new recycling program which will include all paper goods and plastic. This grant will enable the students to purchase containers and lids for classrooms and common areas and pay for the first year of “pick-up”. Local partners including the local trash service and school district will cover the cost of transportation once the grant year is completed.
Sutton Public School in Sutton
SkillsUSA membership: 42 students and teachers
Project: The students will work cooperatively with the Sutton Chamber of Commerce and the Sutton Historical Society to create and place laser-engraved historical markers throughout the town. The markers will be placed at key points of interest to showcase the history of the community and to inform the next generation of how the town was founded and how it has grown.
New Jersey
Bergen County Academies in Hackensack
SkillsUSA membership: 80 students and teachers
Project: The students will transform an unattractive public walkway by the Hackensack River into a more useful and visually pleasing area for the public. This is a rare green area in an urban city, and it is in an area often used by children. Currently it is overrun with garbage and permeated with pollution. The students hope to inspire others to clean up the environment through a Clean Up and Planting program. Informative signs about the river will be placed along the walkway to educate the community.
North Carolina
Hayesville High School in Hayesville
SkillsUSA membership: 21 students and teachers
Project: Students will focus on two objectives at the Native American Spikebuck Mound Preservation. The first objective is completion of a bridge to span Town Creek. The second objective is completion of a 40 foot observation area which is constructed of natural stone, interpretive signage, planting of herbs and berries and Cherokee curriculum educational materials for all three Clay County Schools.
North Dakota
North Valley Career Technical Center in Grafton
SkillsUSA membership: 35 students and teachers
Project: Students will work in cooperation with the Grafton Parks and Recreation by expanding the Frisbee (Disc) Golf Course. The students will fabricate metal baskets so the current course can be expanded from 9 to 18 holes. Students in the drafting classes will design the baskets and then the welding students will cut, fabricate and weld the baskets.
Pennsylvania
Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School in Bethlehem
SkillsUSA membership: 1150 students and teachers
Project: Students will help to restore Illick’s Mill in Bethlehem by using their skills in masonry, carpentry, painting, and electrical construction. Students will receive real life work experience at the mill, working with trained professionals on a daily basis. The Mill will provide a natural classroom for students and a recreation area for generations of families.
Tennessee
Tennessee Technology Center in Chattanooga
SkillsUSA membership: 742 students and teachers
Project: Students will provide a desperately needed new playground area for a local elementary school. The project will include restoration and beautification of their current playground area and the construction of a small kickball field. The students will also build a gazebo to provide a shelter for the children during the intense heat of the summer and create a child-friendly environment.
Tennessee Technology Center in Crump
SkillsUSA membership: 231 students and teachers
Project: Students will construct a storage building for the Hardin County Skills Facility for mentally challenged persons. The external storage will allow internal space to be utilized for an exercise area and life-skills training. The students will install a game area for exercise and a “mock grocery store” for learning basic shopping skills, nutritional planning and money management. Also, computers will be provided with transitional skill programs to enable additional training and experience in basic computer use.
Tennessee Technology in Ripley
SkillsUSA membership: 135 students and teachers
Project: Students will renovate the Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse lower level to add approximately 2100 square feet of usable area. The students will replace a security exit door, sheet rock, ceiling tiles, light fixtures, flooring, painting, and plumbing plus build a food pantry and 2 clothes closets and remove two walls. The center was donated to the community but was in great disrepair.
Virginia
Arlington Career Center in Arlington
SkillsUSA membership: 50 students and teachers
Project: Students will build a mobile, residential structure made of environmentally friendly, recycled and sustainable materials and using state-of-the-art “green” building procedures. The end product will be a two-room house, set on a trailer, which will serve as an exhibit to educate citizens on the value and use of “green” building materials and processes in constructing and renovating homes.
2009 Lowe’s SkillsUSA
Campus Improvement Grant Schools
SkillsUSA chapters at 17 schools nationwide are now implementing their 2009 Campus Improvement Grants for innovative SkillsUSA projects to improve schools or to enhance the student SkillsUSA experience. Here is a summary of the projects:
Arizona
Central Arizona Valley Institute of Technology in Coolidge
SkillsUSA membership: 34 students and teachers
Project: SkillsUSA members are transforming an empty campus room into a functioning medical clinic to serve students and the public.
California
Fontana High School in Fontana
SkillsUSA membership: 40 students and teachers
Project: SkillsUSA members are building a Green Zone near their welding lab. With a going green emphasis, they’ll create a grassy area and gazebo where students can host SkillsUSA meetings and activities.
John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills
Membership: 14 students and teachers
Project: Students will develop a SkillsUSA playground for the Careers with Children training program’s outdoor space. It will be built around a ground-level foam mat depicting the shape of the United States. The small playhouses will depict the architecture found in the US, a miniature Art Deco Empire State Building to a Georgian Colonial mansion. A vegetable garden will be planted for the children to explore the agriculture industry.
Florida
North Marion High School in Citra
SkillsUSA membership: 54 students and teachers
Project: SkillsUSA members are renovating their automotive lab, creating toolkits for students and providing more focus on the development of soft skills.
Pensacola Junior College in Pensacola
SkillsUSA membership: 61 students and teachers
Project: Students are building The Green Education Module project, a classroom-based demonstration/training model containing green equipment and supplies that will provide opportunities to current and future students in the PJC construction-related programs. This grant will enable the SkillsUSA students to practice their skills and demonstrate competency utilizing green technologies in construction.
Technical Education Center Osceola in Kissimmee
SkillsUSA membership: 71 students and teachers
Project: students will renovate and update classroom space to create a dedicated lab to train and test students in the goal of awarding students industry certifications, Florida Ready To work Credentials, and SkillsUSA technical assessments. They plan to create a state of the art center for our students.
Louisiana
Louisiana Technical College Gulf Area Campus in Abbeville
SkillsUSA membership: 41 students and teachers
Project: students will make campus updates including plant shrubs, paint the parking lots, replacing exterior stair rails, painting and updating bathrooms, installing a new sign for front of main building and replacing ceiling tiles in the SkillsUSA activity room.
Maine
Capital Area Technical Center in Augusta
SkillsUSA membership: 479 students and teachers
Project: students will remodel unused office space to create a Student Career Center for career and college research with guidance and assistance of the Maine Department of Labor and their Career Center staff.
Michigan
Eaton ISD Career Center in Charlotte
SkillsUSA membership: 44 students and teachers
Project: Students are building an outdoor obstacle course to be used for the physical fitness component of training for criminal justice and fire science fields. Lansing Community College will help with the plans and the building technology program will build the obstacles. The course will be used by all of the career classes as a tool in team building.
Missouri
Eldon Career Center in Eldon
SkillsUSA membership: 12 students and teachers
Project: Students are rebuilding the front entrance of the school, which also houses the district’s administration offices. The new entrance will feature an enclosure to prohibit heating and cooling loss and will update the building to make a more modern, appealing front entrance for the campus.
South Technical High School in Sunset Hills
SkillsUSA membership: 670 students and teachers
Project: Students from the masonry, culinary, carpentry, welding and horticulture programs are teaming up to build an outdoor kitchen and gathering space for the entire school and community to use for meetings and events.
New Mexico
Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint
SkillsUSA membership: 32 students and teachers
Project: Students of the Navaho nation are improving the facilities at this rural technical campus in order to create a campus where students are comfortable and inspired. With a large percentage of students being parents, a playground and grassy area with benches and a picnic area are part of the plan in order to create an area to relax, hold meetings and enhance the overall campus.
Rhode Island
Chariho Career and Technical Center in Wood River Junction
SkillsUSA membership: 427 students and teachers
Project: The school is launching the only HVAC program in the state next school year. The ReACH Program will offer multiple pathways to careers for secondary and adult learners. The grant will be used to purchase equipment for the program include a pellet stove, water heaters, boiler, and a variety of tubing, tools and equipment.
Tennessee
Cumberland Gap High School in Cumberland Gap
SkillsUSA membership: 53 students and teachers
Project: Students will convert an existing CTE shop into a Career Discovery Center including flooring, writing for computers, Internet access, plumbing, sheetrock, painting and cabinetry. The completed center will house a computer lab and conference area with interactive white board, digital visual presenter and allow online instruction.
East Career & Technology Center in Memphis
SkillsUSA membership: 74 students and teachers
Project: Students will create Brewster Urban Farm on two acres next to the local elementary school on land owned by the school system. The farm will be used as an outdoor classroom for students in grades K-12 and will include gardening, horticulture, botany, and environmental science. Plans include raised growing beds with signage, a garden shed with storage for tools and supplies and a gazebo.
Virginia
Spotsylvania Career and Technical Center in Spotsylvania
SkillsUSA membership: 252 students and teachers
Project: Students are partnering with Spotsylvania Wind Energy LTC to install a wind generator on the school site to expose students to alternative energy construction techniques and concepts.
Washington
Newport School District in Newport
SkillsUSA membership: 36 students and teachers
Project: Students are completing construction on a fire science-training center, with a learning lab for students. This will also be used as a training center for area fire districts in Pend Oreille County.
Lowe’s 2009 Sed de Saber Grant Schools
Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation is awarding service grants of up to $10,000 each to six local SkillsUSA chapters for innovative language projects within their communities. Here are the projects:
California
Metropolitan Skills Center in Los Angeles
SkillsUSA membership: 9 students and teachers
Project: Metro Skills Center has a very large ESL program with over 1,000 students. Metro SkillsUSA will implement the Sed de Saber program on their campus to benefit the Hispanic students and their families by helping individuals to improve their English skills. SkillsUSA members will assist other students in practicing their new language skills by serving as peer tutors.
Georgia
Lumpkin County High School in Dahlonega
SkillsUSA membership: 34 students and teachers
Project: The ELL population will be served through school and home based use of the English for Everyone Sed de Saber system. Students will use the software at school one day per week, and they will be expected to sign out the system for home use one night per week. The SkillsUSA chapter has partnered with volunteers from the Lumpkin County Literacy Coalition at the Adult Learning Center. Each week the volunteers will be available to offer one-on-one tutoring sessions with the parents of the ELL students. Additionally, the SkillsUSA chapter is working with the local employers to institute a program for employees to train on the systems. They will use the English for Construction and English for Hospitality software to provide training through Lanier Tech Center staff on the Lumpkin County High School and Adult Learning Center campuses.
Illinois
Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge
SkillsUSA membership: 28 students and teachers
Project: This project is a partnership between the ESL and Applied Arts and Technology Departments targeting the Hispanic population. Their work will focus on enhancement of everyday language skills. SkillsUSA members and English language learners will form peer partnerships. The students will have the opportunity to interact not only in class but also at chapter meetings. SkillsUSA members will serve as coaches for the ELL students.
Nevada
Eliza Pierce School in Battle Mountain
SkillsUSA membership: 34 students and teachers
Project: The SkillsUSA chapter will partner with the ESL coordinator for the district that works with students from kindergarten through graduation who are English language learners. The ESL coordinator will implement the Sed de Saber program into her program and use the units as a checkout resource for students to use at home and for parents and members of the community. The SkillsUSA members will serve as peer tutors to help with this program. The SkillsUSA members will meet once a week after school to check on the progress of the other students and answer questions.
Virginia
Astracor in Alexandria
SkillsUSA membership: 73 students and teachers
Project: Astracor is a state approved DPOR provider of contractor pre-licensure course, which they offer bilingually. Many of the chapter members speak or understand little to no English. This prevents them from obtaining higher than a Class C contractor’s license because Class A or B must be taken in English. The chapter will use the Sed de Saber program as a resource for its members and their families. They also conduct their SkillsUSA meetings in English so this program will allow more students to participate in the chapter meetings and directly apply their learning.
Washington
Decatur High School in Federal Way
SkillsUSA membership: 17 students and teachers
Project: The high school serves as the host location for the Sed de Saber program within the community. A team has been established with SkillsUSA members, advisors and local community leaders to create a structure to allow not only students but families to utilize these training tools and improve relations within ethnic communities. It will also allow SkillsUSA members to become more knowledgeable about fellow students in their high school and insure that all students are welcome in the SkillsUSA chapter.
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