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The granting making process of SSAB
and/or EPYCS is an experience unlike any other club at CCHS because it is
the only club where high school students get to choose how to give out
$8,000 to non-prodit organizations.
This year-long process, starts out
with a mission statement developed by the club members which is based on
a survey given to high school students. The 2003/04 mission statement
is, "The EPYCS committee, representing the students of Caņon
City High School, will impact the people of Fremont County through our
support of education/scholarships, sports/recreation and child abuse
issues."
During the winter months, club
members do fundraising to reach the $500 minimum so that El Pomar
will match it with $7,500. As soon as they can, nonprofit
organizations start to send grant proposal to the school. We received
53 grants this years from all sorts of organizations in Colorado.
Next, is the hardest part of
the process. Deciding and discussing where the money should go is the
most time consuming and thoughtful part of the year. In our group we
weeded out grants that either didn't fit our mission statement or grants
that were not local. Then we took the top proposals and each of us made
a two site visits to interview the organizations and later brought back
to the group what we observed. This method really helps in deciding how
much we wanted to give each organization.
Another requirement of the grant
proposals is that we have to give at least $2,500 to in-district
organizations. After all the reviewing, interviewing, and discussing of
grant proposals, we finally get to reward $8,000 to various
organizations in a dinner-award night. The EPYCS club at Florence joins
us and we trade off the location of the award night each
year. Other
Service Learning and community volunteer programs chick here |
