Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Prattville Area Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Prattville Baptist Hospital hosted the Autauga Education Foundation A+ Banquet at the Marriott Legends Monday evening.
The Marbury Middle School and Marbury High School show choirs kicked the event off strong with their singing of the national anthem, with the pledge of allegiance lead by Dean Argo and the invocation lead by Eric Jacks.
Countless sponsors, elected officials and members of the community were present to witness guest speakers John David Jones, a senior at Auburn University and Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze.
“If I can do anything to help benefit the educational system in our state, it’s a no brainer for me to be a part of. I’m thankful I was asked. This is a great group of people here and a great crowd, and I hope it does well to help benefit the local education system here,” Freeze said.
When asked what it means to be a part of a fundraiser like this, Freeze stated that the smaller communities surrounding Auburn and throughout Alabama are important to not only Auburn, his program and himself personally, but for education in Alabama as well.
The Autauga Education Foundation, AEF, is a nonprofit organization which provides additional funding and resources to the Autauga County School District. AEF is a separate organization from Autauga County Schools, ACS, but shares similar goals and objectives while providing additional outside support.
“We’re fundraising for all public schools in Autauga County, we’re a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible. We’ve donated over $500,000 since we were founded in the 80’s. With our county being some of the least funded schools in the state, there’s just been a huge benefit in the area,” President of the Autauga County Education Foundation, Eric Jacks said.
Teachers can apply for grants and scholarships online through their website at www.autaugaef.org/grant-request, and Jacks confirmed that teachers apply in the fall and typically receive their grants by December or January. According to the AEF website, funds don’t come from large endowments or corporations, they come from individuals and local businesses that are concerned about the success of ACS.
“When you go to give the money to the teachers, it just lights up their eyes, because they’re now able to do things for their students that they weren’t able to do before with just the little bit of classroom money that they’d received. It makes such a difference when you can give back. I have two kids in the school system, and I understand how important it is for teachers to have these kinds of funds,” Jacks said.
ACS has 15 public schools within the district, serves over 9,000 students from kindergarten to grade 12, is the 14th largest school system in the state and despite being one of the lowest funded school systems, students still excel in arts, technology, sports and other extracurriculars even with the lower funds.
“We have a number of grants that we give out each year, one comes to mind that we did last year where we had a teacher who had an idea to build a garden for special needs students but there really wasn’t room in the budget for that. But through the grants that we’ve raised, we were able to build the garden and teach sciences through that. I’ve heard a lot of other teachers who’ve applied for robotics, various other teaching methods, ACT prep. It’s a really diverse group of needs that are met through these grants,” CEO of Prattville Baptist Hospital and a board of director for the Autauga Education Foundation Eric Morgan said.
Jones, the second guest speaker of the evening, is a Prattville native and studying biomedical sciences and is a pre-dental student minoring in business at Auburn University. Being a product of the Autauga County School System, Jones is expanding his knowledge of science and leadership through his studies at Auburn. After graduation, Jones hopes to continue his education through dental school.
“I love the fact that we are able to as a community give back to our school system. We know that there are always more needs than there are funds for and for us to come together as a community and help meet those additional needs is a great opportunity,” Morgan said.
All proceeds from the A+ banquet go right back into ACS, and the teachers that brighten the future for Autauga County students.
