Photo courtesy of Homewood City Schools Foundation.
Homewood Middle School teacher Ikeia Blackston received the Family and Consumer Sciences grant in Fall 2023 to update class mixers and microwaves and also to add heat press machines. The heat presses will provide a new hands-on experience for the students as they design and print their own t-shirts.
Molly Hasenfuss said she did a little happy dance the day representatives from the Homewood City Schools Foundation walked into her classroom.
She’d requested a grant to buy 10 sewing machines for her family and consumer science class at Homewood High School, and she found out the foundation was giving her the full amount.
“I was thrilled,” Hasenfuss said.
The class had 20 older machines already that required a lot of maintenance and needed to be replaced eventually. The new ones will bring the total up to 30 for now and allow every student in the class to have a machine of their own to use.
And slowly the older machines can be phased out.
“So many of my students enjoy sewing,” Hasenfuss said. “For nine weeks each year, we go over the basics, and these machines are beginner friendly.”
Barbara Wheeler, one of the foundation’s board members, said it was so much fun to see the reactions of Hasenfuss and her students.
“The purpose of the Homewood City Schools Foundation is to be able to strengthen and support the entire Homewood school system,” Wheeler said.
The foundation — a nonprofit organization created in 1994 — works to provide financial support for the five Homewood schools’ educational programs, classroom enhancements, technology, teacher professional development and more.
Each year, they give out more than $100,000 in grants to teachers, Wheeler said, including the one that went to Hasenfuss’ classroom.
That money is raised in a variety of ways, including two main fundraisers — Homewood Grown and Homewood High Rollers Casino Night.
This year’s casino night event will be held Sept. 20 at Rosewood Hall. Those who attend will have dinner and receive two drink tickets and $1,000 in play money. At the end of the night, they can turn in their chips for a chance at prizes.
“It’s a really fun event, and it sold out quickly last year,” Wheeler said, noting that last year’s event netted about $25,000 for the foundation.
Homewood Grown, an annual community event that “celebrates all things Homewood,” also sells out quickly, she said.
“It sold out in 10 minutes,” Wheeler said of their last event in April. “Everybody wants to go to Homewood Grown. It’s a fun night, and you get to hang out with your friends.”
At that event, the foundation also gives Teacher Impact Awards to one teacher from each of the five schools.
All of the money made at Homewood Grown and Homewood High Rollers goes to make Homewood’s schools even better, Wheeler said, as do the donations the foundation receives year round.
“We have a great system, and we just want to enhance that greatness and keep it going,” she said. “That is the whole purpose of this foundation — to make sure our teachers and students get the most that they can to make this system not just good but great. We want it to be the best it can be.”
Wheeler said between July 2023 and May 2024, Homewood City Schools Foundation grossed about $360,000. About $250,000 of that came from Homewood Grown.
Carlye Dudgeon, executive director for the Homewood City Schools Foundation, said the foundation exists to strengthen and support the Homewood school system, which is “already known for its excellence in education” and which has “tremendous community support.”
“We do this with the goal of meeting current educational needs and shaping the future of the Homewood community,” she said.
For more information about the Homewood City Schools Foundation or Homewood High Rollers Casino Night, visit homewoodcityschoolsfoundation.com or call (205) 706-8870.
