The community is invited to two upcoming events hosted by the Community Foundation of Grundy County:
Our annual “Donor and Partner Appreciation Night” will be Monday, May 6th, from 5:00-8:00 pm at the Morris Country Club. This event is a celebration of our work and the donors, partners, friends, and colleagues who help us make our work a success!
To date our sponsors include Balasa, Dinverno & Foltz; Chamlin & Associates; Donico, Inc.; Edward Jones-Kristi Bennington; Grundy Bank; Senator Sue Rezin; Big R Stores; and Mazon State Bank. Due to their generosity, we don’t sell tickets for this event and their sponsorship funds the food and drink.
Even if you are not yet a donor or partner, we welcome you to attend this free event. There is no fundraising – just fellowship – so we hope you will join us to learn more about us and help us celebrate! Please RSVP by May 1 to [email protected] or 815-941-0852.
Our second event is a revival of our “Challenges of the Future” public forum series. Our next topic is “How Illinois Public School Funding Affects College and Career Readiness” on Thursday, May 9th, at 6:00 pm in the Morris Community High School Auditorium.
Our presenters that evening are from Advance Illinois. They will help us answer questions such as “Are Illinois students on track for college and career?” and “Where does Grundy stack up?”
At a time when a postsecondary education matters more than ever and jobs increasingly require more than a high school diploma, less than three-fourths of Illinois students who begin high school will graduate. Fewer still will go on to complete a postsecondary degree. This presentation will not only explain where Illinois stands on the steps toward college and career readiness, as assessed by key educational benchmarks, but also where Grundy county schools fit into that equation. In addition, Advance Illinois will discuss how Illinois is responding to these challenges and what residents of Grundy County can do to support public education.
To learn more about Advance Illinois and to read their reports in advance, please visit https://www.advanceillinois.org/ Please RSVP to [email protected] or 815-941-0852.
On a different note, I want to thank everyone for their generosity and hard work in response to the flooding. As annoying as social media such as Facebook can be, it was a great resource this past week! The Morris Daily Herald, WCSJ, Coal City Courant, the first responders, and others did a great job of updating their Facebook pages with announcements. Volunteers quickly learned where they could be of assistance and those affected by the flood quickly learned where they could get assistance.
I know some are thinking they are too old or busy to have a Facebook account, but it really did come in handy…and I hope it is a long time before we need it for another disaster.
Beyond disasters, though, many organizations, governments, churches, and businesses throughout Grundy County have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and websites. I encourage you to seek them out and “like” or “follow” them so that you can get announcements about all of their services throughout the year. Social media (even with all its ills) is simply another way for us all to stay connected as a community!