Hello and welcome to our friends, supporters, donators, and those who have just discovered our fund.
It’s been a busy year for the Mark Morris Fund, continuing to support our most fundamental programs at the Lewiston-Altura schools, but adding in additional opportunities as well.
In the Spring of 2022, the Mark Morris Fund was able to award 15 seniors scholarships to assist with their financial commitment to both 4-year and 2-year college programs. These scholarships help fund the gap for things like textbooks, food expenses, or travel. One unique and crucial aspect of the Mark Morris scholarships is that students and their families can choose to allocate the money towards their education in a more flexible manner, which means the money doesn’t have to be earmarked specifically for things like tuition or room and board.
We’ve continued to support the Seekers Wild Program, one of our most popular extracurricular clubs. Seekers pushes students to explore nature and the outdoors, and to learn basic outdoor survival skills including shelter-building, finding food and water, and friction-fire techniques.
In October of 2022, we were so excited to launch our first ever in-person College Admissions Workshop at Lewiston-Altura Senior High. The entire senior class was invited to attend. And for me, the best part was that I was able to fly out to Minnesota myself, and team-teach this workshop with one of our fantastic teachers at Lewiston-Altura. It was a dream opportunity to use my background in teaching and my current skills in college admissions counseling to guide this group of motivated students through the entire process of applying to college. We spent the day learning resume writing, financial aid basics, college essay writing, and the process of applying online. Many of these students have been a part of the Mark Morris Fund since the earliest Courage Retreats, so it was a true full circle moment to see them at the end of their high school journey as well. It will be equally satisfying when a handful of these students are undoubtedly recipients of our spring scholarships.
This spring, in 2023, a new enrichment club has formed: the Kid in Motion Club! With a focus on health and wellness, the students have the opportunity to learn basic kitchen skills, but also come to understand more in depth aspects of health and nutrition, and independent healthy habits.
Looking forward, we are pleased to continue our ACT Prep program for seniors, providing the students with the materials necessary to study and take practice exams, and providing a stipend for staff members who receive training and then give their time to facilitate the prep program. And I’m also very excited to plan another trip to Minnesota in the fall of 2023 for our second College Workshop.
As always, thank you for your support, your donations, and most importantly, for remembering Mark and everything he believed in. Providing enrichment and opportunity for students was Mark’s passion and his gift. We are grateful you allow us to carry on his legacy.
With love,
Katie Morris, wife to Dylan, daughter-in-law to Roz, sister-in-law to Lindsey and Carey, and grateful steward of our blog