Aldine Education Foundation holds third annual Donor Breakfast

The Aldine Education Foundation (AEF) held its third annual Donor Breakfast to celebrate past accomplishments and look ahead to the future. The event was held on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the M.O. Campbell Education Center.

During the breakfast, Penny Westerfeld, interim president of Lone Star College-North Harris, presented a $10,000 donation to AEF. The money will be used exclusively to provide scholarships to schools in the Lone Star College System to graduating Aldine ISD seniors.

“We are proud of the wonderful partnership we have with Aldine ISD,” Westerfeld said. “We want to thank you for this long and wonderful partnership.”

Also during the breakfast, attendees heard from Aldine ISD Superintendent Dr. Wanda Bamberg, who provided an overview of AEF. She reported that the Foundation awarded three $5,000 scholarships and 25 $1,000 scholarships to AISD seniors during the 2013-14 school year and nine teacher grants totaling $31,755.

“This is a wonderful organization for our children and we’re excited about the work that’s been done thus far,” Dr. Bamberg said.

During the breakfast, the audience also heard from Dr. Emily Bartley, who was the district’s Secondary Teacher of the Year during the 2013-14 school year, a group of teachers from Hinojosa EC/Pre-K Center who were AEF teacher grant recipients and from AEF Board Member Kyle Sadler.

Dr. Bartley was awarded $5,000 by AEF for being selected the district’s Secondary Teacher of the Year, and put the money to good use.

“I’m still amazed with Aldine and the appreciation they showed to not only me, but to all the campus teachers of the year. They honored every teacher financially.”

She in turn used some of the funds she received to help her students at Aldine High School.

She paid for one of her students’ books for his first two semesters of college, and also helped out other of her students who needed it.

“We need to teach our students to give back,” she said. “My students were amazed at what the Foundation gave to our teachers.”

Hinojosa teachers Jeanettea Denman, Diana Morales and Maria Gonzales presented a Power Point presentation on how they used the $5,000 grant to fund a science project that touched 600 schools in the school.

Sadler spoke on the importance and supporting the Foundation and encouraged those in the audience to not only provide monetary donations, but to also donate their time.

“We need to expand on the importance of giving,” Sadler said. “It’s about our children and we need to let them know we believe in them. They are our future business owners and neighbors.”

AEF Co-President Terry Williams served as master of ceremonies and provided the welcome for the event.

Hear short video clips from the breakfast.

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