The Blue Valley Educational Foundation's Surprise Squad delivered nearly $19,000 in grant checks to the Blue Valley schools on Monday March 3. BVEF moved their grant program to an online format allowing teachers to access funding sooner and apply for grants twice during the school year. This is the second time in this school year the Surprise Squad has delivered grant checks to teachers.

      Helping deliver the grant checks were Congressman Dennis Moore and emcee John Holt, anchor from Fox 4 News. Grant recipients included:

§         Joyce Greer, Stanley Elementary, $4,800 for Kansas Trunks funded by Kansas Gas Service; The intent of this program is to purchase and develop a resource trunk filled with historical artifacts about the state of Kansas.

§         Bethany Starks, Cheryl Gorton and Cynthia Scully, Lakewood Middle School, $3,600 for Musition Software funded by Ricoh Americas Corporation; This is a music theory program that allows the students to work independently and at their own pace.  When students have mastered the topic at each level and are tested, they will be automatically moved up to the next level.  This will help prepare the music students for high school level music classes.

§         Teri Snethen, Abby Neiburger and Shelly Weir, Blue Valley North, $1,500 for READefined Summer Reading Program; This program is designed to help develop and foster a community of readers who enjoy reading on many levels.  This is to help students work towards daily reading time to improve current reading ability.

§         Jennifer Robinson, Oxford Middle School, $4,000 for OMS Camcorders/Digital Cameras funded by Capitol Federal Saving and Major Saver; Camcorders and digital cameras are used by all staff and students at Oxford Middle for a variety of projects including the Newspaper Club, Communication Arts and the Learning Center.