New Spark Fund established to aid SJE S.T.E.A.M. students

When the St. John/Endicott Schools' Foundation “Dollars for Scholars” program marked its 20th anniversary with a dinner celebration last year, foundation manager Marlene Landers told those in attendance the foundation was thinking of establishing a fund for assisting Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (S.T.E.A.M.) students to attend academically-based events.

“Now we're doing it,” Landers told the Gazette Tuesday. “Right now we just want to get the word out.”

The Spark Fund will be used for the purpose of assisting students in attending events related to S.T.E.A.M. education.

“We want to get the word out so that we can build it up so we can help kids to maybe get to a robotics contest or knowledge bowl or something like that,” Landers said.

The foundation has a scholarship fund, but that fund does not allow for assisting students with attending academic events, competitions or conferences.

“We can't use our scholarship funds to do anything but award scholarships,” Landers said.

Landers said the foundation expects to award $42,744 in scholarships to SJE students this year. She said the foundation receives money for scholarship awards from endowments.

“When they started this thing, they put a focus on endowments, and we are heavily endowed,” she said. “Our endowment money has enabled us to do good things.”

Landers said the SJE Schools' Foundation endowment money works by starting an endowment with a minimum of $10,000, and the foundation pays out scholarships from the interest earned from those endowment funds.

“The principle amount is invested and never used,” Landers said. “It just accumulates interest and we just use the interest. The interest gets awarded annually. That's the beauty of the endowment is that the initial money doesn't go away.”

Landers said the foundation has more than 30 endowments. She reported monies raised for the Spark Fund will not be invested as scholarship money has been, but will be put in a local bank account in St. John and be awarded based on need and applications.

“Students would have to apply with a recommendation from their teacher and ask for what they think they need,” Landers explained.

She said the foundation has an initial $2,000 invested in the fund which was raised at the 20th anniversary dinner last May. Now, the foundation will rely on donations to keep the fund stocked and to award students on an as-needed basis.

Landers said a Shred Truck will be in St. John on Saturday, May 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. She said people can bring in documents which need to be shredded for no charge, but donations will be accepted there for the Spark Fund.

Those interested in donating to the fund can do so by mailing a check to the following address, with Spark Fund noted on the check.

SJE Schools' Foundation

P.O. Box 411

St. John, WA 99171