Current
Projects
Following is a list
of current Foundation projects:
Brookfield
Environmental Greenway Education Trail
“Environmental
Greenways” are places of refuge. They are corridors of open space
that cities and towns have dedicated to passive recreation, environmental
education, and nature study. This grant proposal would build the latter
functions into the design of a passive recreational trail that is already
in progress.
The Town of Brookfield
has been awarded federal funding to create a handicap accessible multi-functional
trail along the Still River. The Trailhead will start at Silvermine
Road near the Police Station and is routed along the shoreline of the
Still River for approximately 2 miles. The trail will provide passive
recreational opportunities for hiking, bicycling and nature study. The
“environmental education” function of the pathway needs
self-interpretive signs to explain to school groups, outdoor clubs and
citizens the ecological functions of the river, the floodplain, the
forests and other key habitats that comprise these ecosystems.
The
Brookfield Education Foundation will fund $20,304 for development and
implementation of signage for this environmental education trail. The
goal for this project is to have signage in place for the opening of
this greenway, during the summer of 2009.
Project Goals and
Objectives
GOALS:
- Educate the
citizens of Brookfield and western Connecticut of the environmental
functions of the Still River along Brookfield’s handicap accessible
Greenway trail.
- Design, produce
and install 15-19 environmental education signs.
- Create user
orientation trail brochure and map on a website.
- Promote area’s
history and heritage.
- Improve recreational
access and responsible visitor behavior.
OBJECTIVES:
- Create a self-guiding
interpretative trail to explain the environmental functions of the
Still River to citizens who casually utilize the trail.
- Encourage the
faculty of Brookfield public and private schools to utilize the trail
as an element of their outdoor education program.
Possible examples
of signage include:
- Wildlife of
the Forest
- A watershed

BEF
Funds Literacy Program

The literacy volunteers
attended a 3-hour orientation/training session on August 27. They will
begin work with second grade students in October. The volunteers are:
Front row (left to right): Barbara Stone and Dottie Miles. Second
row: Nancy Quinn, Maureen Capalbo, Kristin Staub, Sean Leary, Arlene
McMullin. Third row: Arlene Reich, Betty Ann Elsenboss, Dorothy
Schmidt, Jean Bradley, Marnie Agard, Pat Walsh. Back row: Tina Schappach,
Jenny Collins, Lisa Miles, Gerry McGlynn, Lyn Canfield
A grant from the
Brookfield Education Foundation has funded the inaugural year of “Hand
in Hand” – a literacy program at Huckleberry Hill Elementary
School. Principal Sharon Beitel, Assistant Principal Matthew Salvestrini
and Librarian Maureen FitzPatrick have provided tremendous encouragement
and support for the establishment of “Hand in Hand.” Retired
teacher Dottie Miles is the program coordinator.
Twenty-eight volunteers
— senior citizens, parents and high school students — will
enhance the learning of developing readers and writers. Each trained
volunteer will spend an hour a week inviting one child into the world
of books and written language. Literacy tutors will demonstrate not
only reading and writing but also citizenship, showing their students
by example what it means to give to others.
“Hand in Hand”
is based on Help America Read, a program and handbook for volunteers,
by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas They cite research showing that
tutored students made greater academic gains than might have been expected
and greater gains than students who were not tutored. Structured ongoing
training for the volunteers is a cornerstone of the program.
Click
here for information on how to submit your project or program to the foundation
for possible funding.
Click
here if you'd like to contribute to these or other Foundation projects. |