High School classes award $5,000 in Youth Grants through Community Foundation

Contributed by Maddy Smith

This spring, the senior class at Orcas High School was given $,5000 by the Orcas Island Community Foundation to donate towards local causes. Each year since 2006, the graduating class has been given a lump sum of money and has had the same opportunity to donate. Every year varies with regard to the criteria and outcome. This year the money was divided 50/50 between the senior Economics and Government classes.

The first step in the decision process was compiling a survey to use when seniors contacted local nonprofit organizations and got some background information about each cause. Questions ranged from, “What is your annual budget?” to “What were some of your recent endeavors and how successful have they been?”

Each student was given five organizations and then had the chance to present their findings to the class. This provided a learning curve for the students because it helped them to develop their conversational skills and forced them to present their findings in front of their peers.

The class narrowed the search down to the top ten. This was one of the more interesting events of the process. Many of the students, especially in the Economics class, were concerned about different organizations being worthy of the money, but not meeting all of the criteria the class had initially set.

After a long debate, the class agreed to vote on the top three based on economic need, their “bang for the buck,” and something that would serve the greatest number of people here on the island.

The Economics class decided to donate $800 to Orcas Family Connections, $800 to the Orcas Family Health Center emergency fund, and $900 to the Orcas Food Bank.

The Government class took a bit of a different approach, aiming to fund a unique project with instant benefits. They based their decision particularly on projects that would benefit children here on the island, and ultimately decided to donate $1000 to The Funhouse, $1000 to Orcas Open Arts, and $250 apiece to Kaleidoscope and Children’s House (for something fun!) .

Overall this was a great experience for the senior class in that they had a chance to expand their knowledge of local nonprofit groups and were also able to feel good about donating to local causes!