MAPLE — The Northwestern Tigers Education Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing grants to teachers and staff in the Maple School District, will host a fundraising gala Oct. 5 in the Lake Nebagamon Auditorium. The Unity in Action Gala will include dinner, live music from alum Grant Ronchi, a silent auction and more.
Dollars raised will be available for use at any of the district schools — Northwestern high, middle and elementary schools as well as Iron River Elementary School — to support educational programs and enrichment activities not otherwise available through typical classroom funding.
“Maple School District has wonderful staff and teachers and we are basing our program off of their needs,” said foundation President Lori Ronchi. “Teachers and staff will be able to apply for grants for things they need, but for which there are no available funds. We haven’t received any grant requests yet, but our link is live. We can’t wait to see what the needs are and start fulfilling requests.”
District Administrator Karl Morrin said the foundation will benefit all of our students in the district.”
Budgets are tight all over, particularly in schools, he said.
“I think theirs is just another way to generate some funds to help the whole school district when either students need something or teachers need something,” Morrin said.
Foundation members hope the funds can be used to create connections and spark new learning opportunities.
Contributed / Lori Ronchi
“We want to be really clear that this funding is available to all teachers and staff,” said foundation Vice President Becky Landwehr. “While students are primarily in classrooms throughout the day, we have no doubt that more than one custodian, bus driver, para or cafeteria worker has also been an MVC (most valuable connection) for a student in our district.”
Those connections enhance students’ performance and can be life-changing for them, she said.
“We want to support those connections by offering any financial support needed to ensure the ability of our amazing teachers and staff to continue to do what they do best, reaching kids through learning and connection. If they have ideas for program enhancement, classroom opportunities, enrichment or incentive programs, we want to support them,” Landwehr said.
The genesis of the foundation dates back to 2018 when
“After a failed referendum, we wanted to show our district employees there are people out there who support them and their needs to educate our children,” Ronchi said.
Parent-teacher organizations at the elementary schools stepped up efforts to support their classrooms, Landwehr said. But there was a need to support older students, as well.
“Since PTA/PTO groups don’t typically exist at a middle and high school level, a group of dedicated moms decided to look into ways to fill gaps at those levels as well,” Landwehr said.
They decided a nonprofit organization was the best way to bring a unified source of support to the district. The foundation is not replacing any existing parent groups.
“We hope to be able to focus on different areas of interest, ensuring even more needs are met throughout our district,” Landwehr said.
The foundation faced setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of board members following graduations. However, a concentrated effort to reboot the organization took place in the spring of 2023. Sara Ploetz, Terri Jicha and Nicole Lester have joined the nonprofit, and the leaders say they have received positive feedback from the community.
“People are interested in what we hope to accomplish and how they can help,” Ronchi said.
Morrin said the district has a balanced budget going into the 2024-2025 school year, which was highlighted at
the annual Maple School Board meeting Sept. 23.
“We’re in good shape right now but we’re just in the process of looking at our pupil count and finalizing that,” Morrin said.
While the district does not see a need for an operational referendum at this point, he said, “we don’t know where we’ll be next year.”
Visit the Northwestern Tigers Education Foundation website at
sites.google.com/nwtigersef.org/nwtef/home
or its
or email info@nwtigersef.org for more information.
Tickets for the Unity in Action Gala are $50 and can be purchased online. Doors open at 6 p.m. A social hour for sponsors starts at 5 p.m.