Blue Ridge receives $125,000 grant

By Lynn Hotaling

The Blue Ridge Technology Learning Center Program has been funded for $125,000 by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, said Principal Lib Balcerek. The award is the largest single grant in the 26-year-old school's history, she said.

"The award of this grant will allow our school to develop programs that we have been dreaming about," Balcerek said. "This is a community school, and this grant will help us meet our mission to serve this community."

"We're thrilled," Jackson County Superintendent Mack McCary said of the grant award.

Written in late May by Peggy Wike, Jackson County Schools' media coordinator, and Roy Douthitt, assistant principal at Blue Ridge, the grant application had broad community support, Douthitt said. The Cashiers Valley Community Council, the Cashiers Rotary Club, Southwestern Community College and Cashiers Exxon Inc. all wrote "compelling letters" in support of the application, Douthitt said.

"We are so fortunate to have someone with the experience of Peggy Wike," Douthitt said. "She identified the opportunity for this grant, and then guided the writing of it."

The one-year grant will enable Blue Ridge to stay open several afternoons each week to work with targeted students, Balcerek said.

In addition, the grant will fund a Saturday morning program for adults and other adult classes in such subjects as computer literacy, Internet resources and English as a second language.

Also included will be a technology-based summer enrichment program for 25 Blue Ridge students. Grant money will also fund an expanded volunteer program and four "major community mini-forums" during the school year, Balcerek said.

"The schools of this area have always been the heart of the community. We intend to strive to continue that tradition," Balcerek said. "I urge everyone to come to visit our school, talk with our students and teaches and get involved as never before with this school."

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