Harper & Paulyne Gerry
Student Assistance
Over the past 30 years, the Foundation’s reach and scope of services have grown steadily in response to the community’s ever-increasing needs. Our efforts supported by our schools and throughout our community are based on the understanding that children cannot learn if they are cold or hungry or cannot see the “blackboard.”
Emergency Assistance: The Guardian Angel Fund provides emergency support for children and their families who find themselves in unexpected and difficult circumstances. We provide stop-gap assistance such as internet access, computers, fuel, etc. For more information about this fund, please contact us.
Warm the Children: Every September for the past several years, the Recorder newspaper’s partnership with Warm the Children has provided winter coats, snow pants, sweatshirts, and hats and mittens for dozens of children in need.
Books, Backpacks, and More: Through our partnership with the United Way of Franklin County, the Women’s Way affiliate group annually donates “Blooming Backpacks” filled with supplies at the beginning of the school year and dozens of bags of groceries providing “Supper for Six” during February school vacation. Anonymous donors have also provided Christmas Trees; the Betty Allen Chapter of the NSDAR has donated warm hats, scarves, and mittens; and local businesses’ donations to the United Way have helped us host a “Wrap it Up” event with books and toys for holiday giving.
Any child in need residing in the school district will receive financial assistance for necessities such as eyeglasses, hearing aids, food, prescriptions, clothing from our Student Assistance Fund. Funding is made possible in part by a grant from the United Way of Franklin County, school district payroll deductions, and the Gerry family.
Funding from the Mary Lyon Foundation has supported the following initiatives:
- High School students building a 24′ wooden geodesic dome
- Middle School students experimenting with solar-powered pumps
- A mosaic and ceramic fountaindesigned and made by students to welcome visitors to their elementary school
- 1st graders feeding a worm composter
- Students in a supported learning program building a garden shed
- 3rd and 4th graders making winter forts
