Freehold Learning Center kindergarten teacher of 12 years,Laura Dilworth, was surprised by members of the First Financial Foundation with an Erma Dorrer classroom grant for the 2018-2019 school year.The Freehold Learning Center is located in Freehold Borough.
Dilworth submitted a grant application to purchase Osmo’s Explorer Kits, which would help her students to explore literacy and math in a fun and engaging way. The kits include hands on playing pieces and real world creative tools, to help the students gain knowledge in number sense, reading, vocabulary, problem solving, self expression, and more.
“I teach kindergarten in a Title 1 school, meaning that the majority of our students receive free or reduced breakfast and lunch. For 2018-2019 our school received district funding to build new classrooms for Pre-K and kindergarten. This year I have a classroom with walls! In the past our classrooms had been in an open-area. My students are smart, imaginative, energetic, enthusiastic, loving and well deserving of the best education available,” said Dilworth. “I want my students to become writers, mathematicians, explorers, readers, and independent learners. The best way to ensure this is to offer them the technology and resources that neighboring districts may have. I would love my first year in a classroom with walls to include this amazing learning tool.”
Since First Financial began with a group of Asbury Park schoolteachers back in 1936, the credit union has not forgotten its educational roots. That is why its Foundation offered current Monmouth and Ocean County educators six (6) classroom grants to use at their schools for the 2018-2019 school year.
“Education has and always will be a pivotal piece of our organization, and we’re delighted to be able to help our local educators enhance their classroom experience,” noted First Financial President & CEO, Issa Stephan.
Stephan also noted that the Foundation committee had a tough job of choosing just six winning teachers out of the numerous applications received this year. “We received dozens of heartwarming essays from educators hoping to use the grant money to implement or maintain a variety of creative programs in their schools such as flexible seating, virtual reality glasses, book stands and shelving, new classroom cabinets, and interactive books and games - to name a few,” said Stephan. “We wish we were able to reward each and every one of our participants, and after extremely careful consideration we selected the six classrooms in which we felt the grant money would have the largest impact.”
First Financial’s Assistant VP of Business Development, Laura Dilworth, and Principal Smith with Mrs. Dilworth’s kindergarten class