September 6, 2017—Applications Now Open for SELCO Community Credit Union's SPARK! Creative Learning Grants
Annual program awards grants to K-12 educators in SELCO communities; 73 grants totaling $32,650 awarded in 2016
(EUGENE, Ore.) — Applications are being accepted through Sept. 30 for the annual SELCO Community Credit Union SPARK! Creative Learning Grants, which award up to $1,000 to K–12 educators across the 26 Oregon counties that SELCO serves. SPARK! was created with the understanding that a lack of funding should never get in the way of students coming together on projects that excite curiosity, deepen understanding, and encourage new ways of seeing.
Formerly known as the SELCO Mini-Grants for Educators, the program most recently awarded $32,650 to 73 educators in 50 Oregon schools for initiatives ranging from yoga club and Lego robotics to habitat restoration and virtual reality.
“SPARK! is based on a core SELCO belief that nothing, particularly a lack of funding, should get in the way of a wonderful classroom idea or learning experience,” said Laura Illig, SELCO’s vice president of marketing. “When teachers bring passion to the classroom, magic happens, and when given enough support these educators can fuel a lifelong passion for learning in students.”
SPARK! Creative Learning Grants support educators with creative classroom ideas and a need to purchase materials to get those projects off the ground. Award recipients have used the funds for an almost unending variety of purposes, from purchasing dozens of copies of a book so a whole school can read it together to adopting a bearded dragon named Rex to inspire learning in kindergartners.
For more information about SELCO Community Credit Union’s SPARK! Creative Learning Grants, visit the SELCO SPARK! page, email spark@selco.org, or call 541-686-5382.
About SELCO Community Credit Union
Founded 81 years ago by a group of fiscally minded teachers, Eugene-based SELCO Community Credit Union now serves more than 135,000 members as the third largest Oregon-based credit union. A not-for-profit, federally insured, member-driven financial cooperative with more than $1.5 billion in assets, SELCO is able to provide its member-owners with exceptional rates and low fees on a full range of financial products and services, including banking, mortgages, personal and business loans, investments, and insurance. Membership is open to anyone who lives or works in the 26 Oregon counties SELCO serves. For more information, or to become a member today, stop by one of SELCO’s 15 branches, call 800-445-4483, or visit selco.org.