Teachers receive more than $73,000 in Exploration Funding

Fifty-one Sarasota County teachers and teacher teams received good news as they welcomed their students back to the classroom this month. The Exploration
funding proposals they submitted to the Education Foundation of Sarasota County in June will receive full funding, benefitting more than 7,900 students at 23 different schools.

Awards totaling $73,513 will underwrite learning adventures, educational field trips, and in-class workshops for students as the school year begins. Forty-nine grants of up to $1,500 each and two Expanded Exploration grants of $5,000 each will link their classrooms to high-impact experiential opportunities, opening doors to arts, history, environmental and scientific resources that many of these children have never seen before.

Teachers based their projects on “explorations" posted on the EdExploreSRQ.com website, which now includes over 36 organizations and teaching artists. Each exploration is tied to state curriculum standards and benchmarks mandated by grade level.

To inspire further generosity, The Patterson Foundation (TPF) continues to match new or increased philanthropic gifts for Education Foundation Exploration Funding from individuals, families, companies, clubs and associations over the next two years, up to a total of $500,000.

Half of the matching funds pay for current grants. The other half funds an endowment to sustain these grants in the future.