Our impact
More than $1.3 million back into Spring Lake classrooms
For more than forty years, neighbors, businesses, and alumni have funded the ideas that make our schools exceptional. Here is where the money goes.
$694K+
Raised by Lakerpalooza and The Shindig since 2012
$53K+
In grants to educators this past fall alone, across 22 awards
$525K+
In the Carol Martin Fund, endowed for elementary classrooms
1983
The year this community decided its schools deserved more
Funded lately
Real grants, in real classrooms
A few of the recent projects your donations made possible, straight from our grant cycles.
The Jeffers Story Walk
Jeffers Elementary
Story-walk signs along a student-built nature path in the woods behind Jeffers, pairing picture books with the outdoors for every K-4 classroom.
Math escape rooms
Spring Lake Middle School
Puzzle-based review kits that send 60 to 70 seventh and eighth graders racing the clock, turning test prep into a team sport.
A portable planetarium
District astronomy club
An inflatable planetarium that brings the night sky indoors for student astronomers across the district.
A stander for the SXI classroom
Special education
Physical-therapy equipment that helps students with severe multiple impairments work toward standing goals alongside their classmates.
S.P.I.R.E. reading kits
Holmes & Jeffers Elementary
Intervention kits that give K-4 readers who need a boost the structured, confidence-building practice that works.
Mystery book clubs
Jeffers Elementary, 3rd grade
Class sets of mysteries that turn third graders into detectives, and detectives into readers.
Lakerpalooza
Every couple of years, our whole town throws a party for its schools
It started in 2012 as The Shindig and grew into Lakerpalooza. Each edition picks one part of Laker life and funds it properly. Together they've raised more than $694,000.
The results are measurable. After the 2012-13 math investment, high school ACT math scores rose from 21.7 to 22.1, AP Calculus composites climbed from 2.1 to 3.1, and grade 5-8 math assessments jumped an average of 18 points.
2012-13
5-12 Mathematics ·
$90,000
2013-14
Literacy ·
$85,000
2014-15
Science ·
$110,000
2015-16
Elementary Math ·
$113,000
2016-17
Athletics ·
$122,711
2017-18
Visual & Performing Arts ·
$110,825
2019
Community celebration ·
$25,852
2022
Literacy ·
$36,612
The gifts behind the Foundation
Stories built into our bricks
Add your brick to the wall
Every gift, at every size, becomes part of this story. The next grant cycle is always coming.