On June 24, two Geneva City School District elementary teachers were awarded grants totaling $1,515 from The Becky Addona TLC Grant Foundation. The grant program was created in 2018 in honor of retired Geneva teacher Becky Addona, who passed away in 2017.
The grant calls for innovative and creative proposals incorporating “many varied and unusual ways” to reach every student while providing them with exciting and challenging classroom experiences. The parameters closely mirror Addona’s own teaching philosophy that every child should be able to learn and participate at their level, much like the personalized learning approach that the Geneva City School District has embraced.
The Addona family created and coordinates the grant fund, which was made possible through generous donations from private donors, community businesses and from the Becky Addona TLC 5K Run/Walk. While the annual Becky Addona TLC 5K Run/Walk was cancelled again because of Covid-19, they hope to be able run this race in June 2022 and fund grants for many years to come. Since 2018, over $13,500 has been awarded in grant funding at the elementary school level. Becky Addona spent the bulk of her teaching career in Geneva elementary schools. While the grant was initially open only to Geneva City School District elementary school teachers, staff from HeadStart/UPK, elementary, middle and high school are now eligible to apply.
Winners of the grants this year are: speech language pathologist Kristin Moody and kindergarten teacher Kathryn Roberts.
Moody was awarded $515 for her grant, “Speech Therapy Resources.” This grant will allow for the purchase of speech therapy resources to help reinforce articulation, language development, listening and memory skills The purchase of new resources will improve student engagement and will foster excitement in therapy. Kathryn Roberts was awarded $1,000 for her grant, “Learning Through Play.” Her goal is to increase playtime for all students in her class and to improve social language, age-appropriate behaviors and academic progress through play.
To learn more about the Becky Addona TLC 5K Run/Walk or the grant process, please visit the website at batlcrun.com.
Don Addona, a retired dentist, still lives in Geneva, NY; Lauren Addona Romero is an elementary music teacher in Bloomington, IL.; Kristin Addona Pontes is a physical therapist with Finger Lakes Health in Penn Yan, NY.; and Mark Addona is a professor at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY.
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