It looked like an old-fashioned barn raising at Hoover Elementary School in Schaumburg, as Hoover families and staff; Friendship Village residents and staff; and Lowe’s employees and business associates helped build a fence and plant a garden around the new greenhouse at Hoover.

As part of Hoover’s vision to become Math and Science Academy, Friendship Village and Hoover applied for and received a $5,000 Supergrant from the Schaumburg Township Elementary School Foundation to erect a greenhouse on property near the school.

The Schaumburg Park District owns much of the property around Hoover School and generously allowed a portion of that park property near the greenhouse to be used for additional gardens. The planning team decided to put a fence around the perimeter of the greenhouse to contain some of the gardens.

Hoover then applied for and received a $3,500 grant from Lowe’s to further expand the garden. Principal Jake Chung and Assistant Principal Jennifer Lynn met with representatives from Lowe’s Home Improvement in Schaumburg. The garden manager at Lowe’s created a plan for the garden area, complete with vegetables, stone paths and perennial flower to attract pollinating insects. Lowe’s also provided seedlings, including peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes, bee balm, phlox, eggplant and corn. Finally, Lowe’s spoke to some contractors and asked them to help build the fence.

Hoover and Friendship Village would like to thank the Schaumburg Township Elementary School Foundation, Lowe’s Home Improvement, B&R Handyworks Extraordinaire, Lou-Bo’s Handyman Service Inc. and MCS of Illinois for their help in the barn-raising.

The Foundation is pleased to announce record participation at its recent signature outing on June 14, 2010 at Schaumburg Golf Club. We extend our sincere thanks to all sponsors, donors, volunteers and guests who contributed to the success of this event. Thanks to your dedication to our event, the 13th Annual Golf Outing raised $26,000.

The Foundation has been awarded an Innovation Generation grant for $26,200 from the Motorola Foundation. The money will support the GEMS programs in District 54 schools for the 2010-2011 school year. This generous grant will allow the GEMS programs to expand into more schools and offer these challenging programs to encourage girls to explore higher level math and science projects. We are deeply grateful to the Motorola Foundation for this wonderful opportunity to broaden our quest for excellence in education.

The Schaumburg Township Elementary School Foundation recently announced the funding of more than $22,000 in grants to District 54 staff members.
Recipients will be presented with certificates at the Jan. 6, 2011, School Board meeting.

The foundation’s $5,000 Super Grant was awarded to a team of teachers from the five junior high schools to start a Junior High Photography Unit. The Foundation also awarded three project grants and 22 minigrants.

Applications for the Foundation’s Memorial Grant will be available on this website in February 2011, as well as in PTA newsletters.

The Schaumburg Township Elementary School Foundation awarded more than $15,000 to 130 students in 2010 for participation in summer programs, including science, art, music, sports and reading. We are proud of every student who took the initiative to seek out opportunities to enhance their education. We are pleased to be able to fund over $14,000 in grants towards summer enrichment programs. Our most sincere thanks to each individual and company who contributed to our memorial grant fund, allowing us the means to “send a child to camp.”