Students distribute grant funds

Sisters students went on a spending spree last Saturday night. It wasn't iPods or clothes the students put $5,000 into - it was their community.

The Sisters High School Leadership class hosted a dessert gathering to distribute funds they were awarded through a program called Community 101. Teacher Bill Rexford wrote a grant to the program and turned it over to leadership advisor Kristi Rawls.

Bank of the Cascades, PGE Foundation and the Doris Coombs Thomas Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation provided the class with $5,000. It was up to the students to determine what programs and non-profit agencies in the community should be award the funds.

The project began with a survey of high school students to determine needs. According to Ben Fullhart and Brandon Morgan, who worked on the project from its beginning this fall, the needs were obvious.

The students settled on mental health (specifically depression and suicide prevention) and substance abuse as the focus of need.

"You wouldn't know it by looking at the small town of Sisters, but there's some dark things that need to be addressed," Morgan said.

The class, which includes Morgan, Fullhart, Sara McKinney, Marine Tresnie, Jessica Miller and Jordan Williams began to investigate non-profits that would best serve those needs and benefit from grant funding.

They chose The Kids Center in Bend, Deschutes County Healthy Beginnings and Hospice of Redmond and Sisters (Camp Sunrise bereavement program) to receive a total of $4,000.

The students explained that their choices reflect the belief that early intervention on the behalf of children who have suffered loss or abuse or are at risk due to other difficult circumstances is the best way to head off mental health and substance abuse problems down the line.

Representatives from each of the non-profits were on hand Saturday night to accept the grants, as were representatives of the funding agencies.

A $1,000 portion of the Community 101 funding was dedicated for use within Sisters High School. The class chose to support the Sparrow Club's efforts to help the Holly Davis family and to help fund the lacrosse program's Steven Connolly fund, set up to honor a young Sisters student who died after an ATV accident last year.

The class will also fund the LINK crew - upper classmen who help incoming freshmen acclimatize to the high school environment.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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