Friends of the Homestead School Announces their First Scholarship Awards along with Community Outreach and Humanitarian Efforts
“Ultimately, we moved here (to Sullivan County) for our children. We believe in the importance of early childhood education. We believe in teaching our children now to be environmental stewards and humanitarians. We believe waiting for college is too late to invest in our children’s future. We believe if our children are going to make a positive impact on our world and its people, the education needs to start at a very early age, and we believe the Homestead School is the best place for the guidance and tutelage of our children”
Scholarships:
The Friends of the Homestead School (FOHS) is proud to announce it will be granting its first round of Scholarship Awards for the 2020-2021 school year. Applications were submitted online and over $20,000 in awards have been granted. The Mission of the FOHS is to strengthen Homestead School’s role as a community resource for access to environmental and humanitarian education through the provision of financial assistance and funding of projects that support community engagement in environmental and humanitarian efforts.
Families applied online via the FOHS website. The scholarship fund offers need-based assistance to families within our community who have shown interest in humanitarian and environmental stewardship and wish for their child to receive an education with special attention to environmental and humanitarian issues in a rural setting, such as modeled by the Homestead School.
The application asks parents to state why they choose an institution that educates for and actively participates in environmental stewardship and humanitarian efforts. Here is what the applicants had to say…
“We grew as educators and artists and are now involved in both local (to Sullivan County) and regional projects that center art and ecology as drivers for positive change. We are deeply aligned with Homestead school’s mission and methodology and cannot imagine sending our children anywhere else.”
“Having my child gain independence, hone life skills and have confidence to change and maintain a healthy environment is a reward whether immediate or a slow steady progression of powerful force for change and sustainable life.”“As a former student of the Homestead, I spent a great deal of my childhood learning about the earth and its inhabitants. We participated in many projects to improve our world, be it through creating artwork to benefit the Rainforests or learning how to farm land to grow healthy food to share with our community. I remember the intense pride I felt in working hard and giving back.”
“What our child learns in school today will shape the rest of his life and what he will take into the world which is crucial for a sustainable future. Today more than ever our children have an enormous stake in the present and future state of mother Earth. Knowing the Homestead School is aligned with our beliefs in these ways is very important to us”
“Even at her young age, our child has been able to develop an eye and heart for the world and people around her. At home she is encouraged to pursue and explore those feelings and it is a gift to have that translate to school, as well.”
“Now more than ever we need to learn how to live in harmony with nature or this planet will become inhospitable for all life.”
COVID Response: Financial Support, Community Outreach, and Humanitarian Efforts
FOHS has offered COVID-19 Emergency Tuition Scholarship 2019-2020 to aid families who need financial relief relating to the current school yeaR.
FOHS has also collaborated with the Homestead School and members of our local community to fund and produce desperately needed items of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE.) Currently ongoing and funded largely by FOHS is the production of PPE using 3-D Printers. Additional funding was also provided to FOHS through a $7,500 grant from the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan County and their Orange and Sullivan COVID-19 Response Fund. To date over 2,000 face shields have been made and distributed throughout the region. An additional cloth mask initiative has followed, as a response to the CDC’s recent recommendation for the use of face masks by the public. A true community effort has evolved, with mask supplies being sent by FOHS to the homes of local volunteers who are busy cutting, assembling and sewing. In cooperation with COVID Courage, these FOHS sponsored face masks will be distributed to the NYPD and FDNY to distribute to NYC community groups, especially in underserved and hard hit neighborhoods.
FOHS is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Glen Spey, NY. Funding for FOHS has been made possible by the generous support of Homestead School parents and friends. Last year, in honor or the Homestead School’s 40th Anniversary, a celebration was which raised over $77,000. This included a $25,000 donation in the form of a Climate Lab Grant, made possible by The Center for Discovery’s Patrick Dollard and Ramsay Adams of Catskill Mountainkeeper.
“I am reminded often that the changes we need must be cultivated in our children, so that they can face and find solutions to the global problems they are inheriting from us. I have seen… in my exposure to the youth at the Homestead School how cultivating these values, habits and passions in children provides the spark needed to catalyze change in us the adults and elders.”
People wishing to learn more about FOHS are welcome to visit their website. https://www.fohomestead.org
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