The Calgary Catholic Education Foundation (CCEF), the Calgary Catholic School District's (CSSD) charitable partner, announced that it is awarding over $75,000 in grant funding to 36 schools, which will positively impact over 5500 students this school year.
"Despite these challenging times, we felt it was critical that we provide these grants to the schools and ultimately benefit the students," says Janet Lymer, Executive Director of the CCEF.
The CCEF received over $250,000 in requests from 50 of the 118 schools in the CCSD this year. Over $160,000 of this was for technology, emphasizing Chromebooks and tablets items that are crucial for students who were directed to online learning from home late last month.
"The sad reality is we had to turn down $175,000 in requests because the resources aren't there. We have schools with at-risk students who are now learning from home and do not have access to laptops or portable devices to do their school work. We recently received a call to help one school that needs 60 laptops for students to use at home. So far, we have been able to coordinate about 8-10 to that school", says Lymer.
"We are incredibly grateful for the technology grants our schools and classrooms receive from the Calgary Catholic Education Foundation," says Dr. Bryan Szumlas, Chief Superintendent of the Calgary Catholic School District. "These grants help integrate technology into the curriculum and provide enhanced opportunities for our students during this period of increased online learning."
In 2008, the publicly funded Catholic schools in Calgary stopped participating in charitable fundraising casinos as they are considered a social injustice in the Catholic faith. These casino funds supported school needs such as technology, varsity sports and enhanced learning opportunities. Such events averaged about $70,000 per casino per school in 2019. The CCEF was established to provide an alternative funding source for these casinos while ensuring publicly funded Catholic school students receive the same access to additional school needs as public schools. Since that time, the CCEF has awarded over $3 million to classrooms and schools in Calgary, Airdrie, Chestermere and Cochrane.
An additional $25,000 is being awarded this year for classrooms to participate in the hybrid version of Campus Calgary/Open Minds ® from a dedicated fund set up following the 2018 Bishop's Dinner.
The CCEF is a registered charity with Revenue Canada and is independent of the Catholic Diocese of Calgary and the CSSD. It relies solely on donations and corporate support for its operations and grants.
A list of CSSD schools receiving 2020 CCEF grants is attached.
