The Pampa Education Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports Pampa Independent School District students and educators in areas where the District may not be able to.
“Our mission is to support and enhance the education of all students in Pampa ISD,” board member Jana Vinson said. “The Board of Directors is made up of a cross-section of citizens dedicated to education and they share a vision of excellence for Pampa public schools.”
The Foundation, started in 2001, does this by providing funding and teacher grants to educators.
“We award grants twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring,” Vinson said.
Some of the grants have gone toward protective gear in the welding program, interactive tools, laptops, field trips to DisneyLand, updated musical instruments, dictionaries, chemistry/biology equipment, calculators and more.
“Sometimes teachers will go to workshops over the summer and see equipment or something they didn’t include in the budget,” Vinson said. “So they’ll write a grant for those.”
The Pampa Education Foundation will be at the Back-to-School Bash on Aug. 12, PampaFest on Aug. 21 and they will be selling tickets for their upcoming event featuring Dr. Ben Carson.
“We’re planning to go to United, Finley’s Fountain and other locations around town to sell tickets,” Vinson said. “Our tickets are selling pretty fast right now.”
The Ben Carson event will be at MK Brown Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. on, Thursday, Oct. 14. Carson will also be doing an event with PISD students at the High School in the McNeely Field House the following Friday.
For more information on Pampa Education Foundation, call Jana Vinson at 806-662-5543. Tickets to the Ben Carson event are $20 and can be purchased at bencarsonpampa.eventbrite.com.
