Sunday, August 15, 2010

Grant Award: American Honda Foundation ($25,000)

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) is proud to acknowledge receipt of the largest single grant award in our 19-year history from the American Honda Foundation (AHF). AHF agreed to provide $25,000 funding to support our national Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship (SITES) program.

Our grant proposal was written in conjunction with the National BDPA Member Services business area. The grant proposal was good enough to earn us a site visit.  The visit was conducted by AHF's Donna Hammond-Cotton.  She traveled to Rochester, Minnesota to see an example of our SITES program. Past chapter president Betty Hutchins organized the visit. Mrs. Hammond-Cotton was able to meet with chapter students, alumni, corporate sponsors and the local school board. Mrs. Hammond-Cotton wrote,

"Your Southern Minnesota chapter really impressed me, they displayed such professionalism, dedication and possibilities for our next generation of leaders."
The contents of our grant proposal along with the evaluation by Mrs. Hammond-Cotton were provided to the AHF Board of Directors in late July. Mrs. Hammond gave us the informal results when she wrote,

"Congratulations! I'm hopeful by now that Betty has informed your organization that the American Honda Foundations' Board of Directors has decided to partner with the BDPA in its efforts of making a difference in the lives of our youth. In fact, the SITES program ranked number one out of the top 15 finalist! Not to mention that there were over 500 other proposals that we had to review for consideration this quarter."
About a week later we received the formal notification from the president of the American Honda Foundation:

Dear Mr. Hicks,

On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff, it is my pleasure to acknowledge to you our check in the amount of $25,000. It is our understanding that thsi grant will be used towards our partnership with the 'SITES: Student Information Technology Education & Scholarship' program.

We are pleased to contribute to the meaningful endeavor that the BDPA (Education and Technology) Foundation is making in the field of education. We wish you continued success.

Sincerely,
Gary Kessler, President
American Honda Foundation

BETF is very excited about this successful grant effort. The grant funds will be used for the SITES program. It will assist in supporting the administrative operation of the National BDPA efforts to support its 45 chapters in preparing and bringing students to the National High School Computer Competition held at the national BDPA Technology Conference each year. A portion of the funding will go to BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter to support the exceptional work they are doing with the youth in Minnesota.

BETF will provide quarterly progress reports on the expenditure of these funds. Our quarterly progress report will include a financial summary and a narrative comment on development of the SITES program.

We want to give thanks to National BDPA VP-Member Services Paulette Johnson-Davis, BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter president Charlie Perkins, BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter past president Betty Hutchins and other members of the BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter for their support in processing this grant proposal.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Congratulations BETF! This is wonderful news! I am thankful for your efforts.

Sincerely,

Julius Clark
President
BDPA Charlotte
www.bdpacharlotte.org

Unknown said...

Julius - Asante sana! Let's get busy and bring some funds in for your chapter as well!

Unknown said...

AHF Senior Program Officer Donna Hammond-Cotton made her site visit to Rochester MN last month. Here is the note she shared with the chapter leadership after her visit:

Here are Donna's kind words in response to her visit with Betty Hutchins and the folks from our BDPA Southern Minnesota chapter!
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Hi Betty:

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for making my visit such an informative and educational one. I sincerely appreciate the effort everyone made to insure that I got all the information I needed to complete the site visit segment of our grant review process.

I truly enjoyed my visit with you, the Superintendent, the Chancellor, Mr. Perkins, Toni and your other colleagues at the Boot Camp Training whom over the years have been responsible for implementing the SITES Program in Minnesota. It’s always invigorating to talk with such dedicated, creative, and enthusiastic people. I commend you all on the work you’re doing with our youth.

Speaking of the youth, I’m still in awe over how bright and mature they are. I just love seeing our young people so driven and motivated, yet still taking the time to laugh, play and enjoy their lives.

Lastly, I’d like to thank you again, for the delicious breakfast, lunch, the mini tour of the Mayo Clinic and taking me to the airport. You are such a jewel; I really enjoyed your company. BDPA is very fortunate to have you as a volunteer and partner/sponsor. Our communities need more individuals like you.

The BDPA is such an exciting and deserving organization to partner and invest in. I pray that my Board feels the same. I'll be in touch with you after our Board meeting on July 29th.

Sincerely,
Donna Hammond-Cotton
Senior Program Officer
American Honda Foundation