About Us

Mary Lyon Foundation

The Mary Lyon Foundation Inc. was established in 1990 and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization on March 8, 1991. It is a community-based organization, supporting all aspects of quality education in the towns of Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Hawley, Heath, Plainfield, Rowe, and Shelburne, as well as occasional outreach in other Franklin County and Connecticut River Valley towns.

Vision: The Foundation’s vision is for all students to have the resources to be ready to learn, to succeed in school and to thrive in the wider world.

Mission: The Foundation’s mission is to empower students and their families by advocating for community investment in programs and services.

Succeeding Sue Samoriski as Founding Executive Director, 26-year educator and administrator Kristen Tillona-Baker joined the Foundation in January of 2021 as the new Executive Director. It is with great pride that the foundation recently celebrated its 30th year of providing invaluable resources to students, families, and educators in the nine hilltown communities of northwestern Massachusetts. As the Foundation embarks on its next thirty years of service to our community, our mission is at the heart of all that we do to support our community.

our

vision

We ensure students have the resources to be ready to learn, to succeed in school and to thrive in the wider world.

our

mission

We empower students and their families by advocating for community investment in programs and services.

Mary Lyon Foundation

History

Mary Lyon (1797–1849)
Born on a small farm in Buckland, Massachusetts, and possessed of a prodigious mind from an early age, Mary Lyon was supported by her family and community in her quest for knowledge. By age seventeen she was a teacher herself, and soon after that a teacher of teachers.

While still in her twenties she founded a school in Buckland that rapidly drew perhaps as many as one hundred girls from the surrounding hilltowns. Drawing strength from the hills near Buckland, she fought for and achieved the principle of permanence for an institution of higher learning for women. She established Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (later Mount Holyoke College) in South Hadley, Massachusetts in 1837, creating the first institution of higher learning for women. Many of her pupils became teachers in the one-room schoolhouses of New England, pioneer teachers of the westward expansion, and missionaries who traveled as far away as Hawaii and Persia.

"Take care of your reading, writing and singing."

These words of wisdom were spoken by Mary Lyon, a 19th-century pioneer in women’s education and advocate for opportunity and quality education for all. The Mary Lyon Foundation is inspired by and takes its name from this renowned educator.

It is with great pride that the foundation recently celebrated its 30th year of providing invaluable resources to students, families, and educators in the nine hilltown communities of northwestern Massachusetts. As the Foundation embarks on another thirty years of service to our community, our mission is at the heart of all that we do to support our community.

Learn more about Mary Lyon:

Mount Holyoke College’s Mary Lyon Homepage
Documentary of Mary Lyon’s life

Where We

Serve

The Mary Lyon Foundation provides services and programs to all of the schools within our nine town area in northwestern Massachusetts. The towns we serve are Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Hawley, Heath, Plainfield, Rowe, and Shelburne. The total population is 10,700. Geographically, the Mohawk Trail Regional School System is the largest and poorest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with six schools encompassing 256 square miles in Franklin and Hampshire Counties.

For more information about the schools we serve:
Mohawk Trail/Hawlemont Regional School Districts
Buckland-Shelburne Elementary
Colrain Central Elementary
Hawlemont Regional School
Mohawk Trail Regional Schools
Rowe Elementary School
The Academy at Charlemont
Sanderson Academy