Local teachers win CalRTA grants

Members of the CA Retired Teachers Association Div. 13 marked “Retired Teachers Week” in November by inviting teachers in 10 local school districts to apply for up to $200 to fund a classroom project. This year CalRTA received 171 applications and 25 were funded. Among them, at Evergreen Elementary in Walnut Valley USD, Kindergarten teacher Melody Fernandez needed materials for the “Project Lead the Way” program. She is shown with CalRTA member Robbie Cendejas. Visit div13.calrta.org for more information.

Pomona Host Lions Club has awarded a total of $2,875 to nine teachers and one teacher group in the Pomona Unified School District as part of the club’s annual Mini Grant Program.

Teachers had to apply for the grants by providing brief descriptions of how they would use the funds. Individual grant amounts ranged from $250 to $500.

“The grants are helpful for a variety of projects in many subject areas,” said Denny Mosier, a club director. “We had many interesting projects to fund.”

Projects ranged from gardening tools, gloves, hoses, planter boxes, plants and seeds for tomato growing to furniture for flexible seating.

The winners were (with schools in parentheses): Teresa Vera (Kingsley), Marka Carson (Montvue), Debra Low (Armstrong), Godfrey Okonkwo, Kathleen Adams and Jan Sedig (Montvue), Christina Owens (who works at several PUSD schools), Olivia Razo (Vejar), Timothy Sanchez (Armstrong), Christine Unger (Pantera), John Welti (Madison) and Sunna Akbar (Lorbeer).

Lions raised the funds from their two major fundraisers: The Halloween “Boo-athan” bowling tournament in the fall and the spring “Quarter Mania.”