Culver City Observer -

At the October 25 school board meeting Culver City Education Foundation (CCEF) President Wendy Hamill presented the School Board of the Culver City Unified School District with a check for $75,000- representing three new grants CCEF has received from the Fineshriber Family Foundation.

Ten thousand dollars of this gift will pilot Culver Needs, which will build on programs for neediest students (i.e., Culver Closet, Backpacks for Kids, Project Prom) to ensure that all CCUSD children have the support they need to come to school ready to learn and able to succeed.

A second grant for $10,000 will support the Front & Center Theatre Collaborative that brings professional theatre troupes into classrooms to provide curriculum reinforcing theatre experiences for every CCUSD K-12 student. Specifically, this grant will fund the Story Pirates writing workshops in which fourth graders create Hero characters and the non-violent solutions their heroes use to solve problems.

The remaining Fineshriber Family Foundation grant announced that evening was their third grant to purchase new instruments for the CCMS and CCHS music programs. This $55,000 investment in the music program brings their total investment in new instruments for students to $188,000 over the past four years.

Paul Witt, who directs the music program at CCMS, was one of many who thanked representatives of the Fineshriber Family Foundation at the Board meeting, noting that their past grants had already had a profound impact on the middle school music program.

Photo Courtesy Culver City Education Foundation

Before the Fineshriber Family Foundation made its first musical instruments grant to CCEF there was no intermediate band program or Pep Band at Culver City Middle School, now there is. Since last spring the middle school instrumental music program has grown from 128 students before the first grant to 202 students today. Similar growth has been seen in the high school instrumental music program and with more instruments on the way both programs are poised to grow even more.

The results from other CCUSD programs supported by earlier grants from the Fineshriber Family Foundation, such as the GrowingGreat Garden and Nutrition program, the El Rincon Science Lab, our district spelling bee and the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra music program in our elementary school classrooms, have been every bit as impressive.

As School Board President Dr. Steven M. Levin noted, while the donations from the Fineshriber Family Foundation have been large, their effect has been far larger, because in program after program the Fineshriber Family Foundation has made "seed donations that make big things grow."