Initially, the Foundation allocated funds to individual students, allowing them to participate in summer enrichment activities they otherwise would not be able to do.
Within a few years, the focus of the Foundation has shifted to providing funds to the Lewiston County Middle School, for the eighth grade class to attend the Youth Frontiers “Courage Retreat.” This retreat has revitalized the students’ commitment to making sound, moral choices, and supporting one another in and out of the classroom. 2024 was our eighth year sending seventh graders to the Courage Retreat.
The 2017-2018 school year saw the Foundation take a new direction, from which we’ve continued to grow. Since the start of the 2018 school year, the Fund has been supporting after-school enrichment clubs, awarding individual scholarships at the end of each school year, and continuing to support the 7th grade Courage Retreat. In this way, we continue Mark Morris’s legacy of providing students with enrichment activities to help them thrive in their school setting and beyond.
In 2019, 2020, and 2021, Mark Morris’s family continued to advocate for the fund to directly assist students in the Lewiston-Altura school system, and as such, it has further provided more post-secondary scholarships for students graduating each year. Mark always believed in providing opportunities where students were underserved, and these scholarships continue to fill a gap and provide resources for students to attend programs for four year degrees, associates degrees, or trade schools, so that they can pursue an education beyond their high school diploma.
Beginning in 2022, we added college readiness to our programming at Lewiston. This began with an ACT Prep course for juniors, and eventually grew into both virtual and in-person senior college application workshops. These workshops provided students with the chance to work hands on with someone in the college application industry, giving them insight and guidance into everything from online application submissions to FAFSA. As we move forward into 2024, we will continue these programs, but our 2024-2025 Senior Scholarship focus will grow to support a single student in the amount of $5,000 for two years of post-secondary education, up to an amount of $10,000.