The first project from a pilot program to encourage student leaders to give BCEF input regarding potential grant areas is about to be unveiled at BHS. Last spring, BCEF Executive Director Anne Wilson met with members of the BHS Student Council and made them an offer.

“Since students are the ones most impacted by grants, why not ask the students for their input on what they’d like to see funded?” Wilson said. “These student leaders were charged with the task of developing two innovative grant proposals for the BCEF Grants Committee to consider. Each grant proposal had to include a description of the grant idea, a line-item budget, and information about the labor required to have the proposal implemented.”

The students presented the two grant proposals to our Grants Committee last spring and one was chosen and awarded $1,000 from BCEF, which BHS will match.

Since that time, business teacher Cathy Martini, Student Council advisor Charlie Raab, and BHS student Julia Hunter have been working hard to open a new “Spirit Store” at BHS. The Spirit Store will offer a variety of Bulldog-related items for sale and will be run by BHS students. While the permanent location of the store will most likely be in the new BHS addition, a temporary store will hopefully be up and running in the foreign language hallway sometime before the end of this school year. Possible store hours could be a few mornings a week and maybe some lunches.

“The BHS students I have talked to about this project are very excited because it will give them an opportunity to create more school spirit, as well as conveniently allow them to purchase items that they would normally have to get online or at a store,” said Raab.

BCEF looks forward to the grand opening of a store that is all about students: created by them, developed in detail by them, brought to fruition by them, and will be run by them FOR them. Grant ideas are coming to the high school from the inside out. What a great way to foster creativity in education.