Marathon Runner’s Legacy Puts Riverside Students in the Winners Circle for Extended Education
Riverside, California (PRWEB) December 06, 2013 -- The Community Foundation Serving the Counties of Riverside and San Bernardino awarded THINK Together’s programs in the local area with its second $25,000 grant from the S.L. Gimbel Foundation Fund at the beginning of this school year.
The funds are designated for the improvement of early literacy in the Riverside and San Bernardino schools.
This recent funding further strengthens THINK Together’s focus on early literacy by providing 12 school districts in the Inland Empire with THINK Together Literacy Kits. These kits will serve as tools that children age 2-12 can use to build and develop their fluency and comprehension skills.
“The Community Foundation’s objective is to invest the gifts we receive so they grow,” said Sharilyn Hunke, Communications Officer for The Community Foundation. “We want to give grants to nonprofits to help them improve the quality of life in our region. By selecting THINK Together to receive the funding from the S.L. Gimbel Foundation Fund, we believe that we are honoring Ms. Gimbel’s legacy by investing her gift in an organization that is committed to educating our youth and therefore, improving the quality of life in our area.”
The S.L. Gimbel Foundation Fund is named for Susan Gimbel, an ultra-marathon runner who loved the outdoors and passionately supported education, the arts and cancer research. Susan lost her battle with ovarian cancer in 2006. In a 1991 article, Susan Gimbel said, “No matter how strongly the body protests, the spirit can prevail.”
Prevail, it does as Gimbel’s legacy continues through her foundation, the S.L. Gimbel Foundation Advised Fund at The Community Foundation.
It was also through The Community Foundation that THINK Together was selected to apply for the S.L. Gimbel grant that also funded last year’s mathematics programs at THINK Together’s elementary, middle school and reading programs for kindergarten to fifth-grade students in both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The funding gave THINK Together the opportunity to purchase Math Blast and Versatile Kits, a highly effective curriculum that taught nearly 30,000 students mathematics in a fun and engaging manner using games.
“We are so honored to have been granted $50,000 by the S.L. Gimbel Foundation Fund,” said Erin Brinker, THINK Together’s Inland Empire Executive Director. “Already this gift is making a difference in our area as our young students become further entrenched in math and reading. Simple basic skills that are critical to their ongoing success in middle, high school and college.”
The Community Foundation Serving the Counties of Riverside and San Bernardino was founded in 1941 and since 1990 has dispensed more than $50 million in grants and scholarships to nonprofits.
About THINK Together
THINK Together is a nonprofit education organization that partners with schools and school districts to support systems, mostly for low-income students, in order to close the achievement gap and has grown into the state’s largest provider of Extended Learning Time programs, (early literacy, after-school, summer learning, etc.). THINK Together currently serving more than 100,000 students at more than 442 locations across 41 school districts from San Diego to Sacramento. Partnering with school administrators and teachers, its academic programs and dedicated team of 3,000 employees are helping students close the achievement gap. THINK is an acronym: Teaching, Helping, Inspiring & Nurturing Kids. For more information, call (888) 485-THINK or visit http://www.THINKtogether.org.
Kathleen Sanchez, THINK Together, http://www.thinktogether.org/, +1 (714) 543-8807 Ext: 8163, [email protected]
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