With a balloon bouquet and a giant check from the Prize Patrol, lucky Demopolis teachers received the news Thursday, September 29, that they had been awarded grants from the Demopolis City Schools Foundation.

The Foundation received 34 applications asking for $96,065.63. Of those 22 received full or partial funding for a total of $50,108.23.

Most of the requests this fall were for technology items to bring classrooms into the 21st Century, but other requests asked the Foundation to fund professional development, writing programs and physical education supplements.

By campus the totals include Demopolis High, $12,947.47; Demopolis Middle, $22,079.43; U.S. Jones Elementary, $5,767.63, and Westside Elementary, $7,893.70. In addition, a grant to benefit all teachers in the system was funded for $1,420.

Members of the Grants Committee who determined the awards are Aliquippa Allen, chairman; Amie Attaway, DHS; Kim Easley-Bell, DMS; Patricia Bolden, USJ, and Amy Hasty, WES.

The committee called on the expertise of the school system’s technology coordinator, Jeremiah Dial, for the cost and specifications of technology requests.

Since the Foundation’s beginning in 1993, it has awarded $856,483.26 to education professionals in the Demopolis school system for projects, programs and equipment that cannot be paid for through the system’s budget.

Grants are financed through Foundation memberships, fund-raisers and interest on investments.

Demopolis High School

• Cynthia Whitlock, “The Power of Print 2011,” $996.03 partially funded for two rolls of poster paper and one roll of laminating film.

• Cynthia Whitlock, “Technology: Keep on Rolling!,” fully funded for $6,800, for a portable set of classroom computers.

• Cynthia Whitlock, “Keeping Readers Reading,” $1,821.50 fully funded to increase the contemporary fiction collection in the library.

• Rachel Etheridge, “Surfing the Math Waves with the Promethean Board,” $1,958.43 fully funded for a classroom SMART Board.

• Connie Boutwell, “Continuing Access to Technology,” $957.54 fully funded for replacement lamps for LCD projectors.

Demopolis Middle School

• Tracy Pearson, “Life Steps for Students,” $899.40 fully funded, for a video series to enhance character development.

• Coty Geohagan and Julie Massey, “The SMART Revolution,” $3,071.34 partially funded for a classroom SMART Board.

• Megan Edmonds, “Educating with ELMO,” $1,500 partially funded for an ELMO visual presenter.

• Charlene Jackson, “Creating Interactive Classrooms with Smartboards,” $2,939.98 fully funded for a classroom SMART Board.

• Patricia McVay, “Smartboard Mathematician,” $2,939.98 fully funded for a classroom SMART Board.

• Andrea Turberville, “Smartboard Mathematician,” $2,939.98 fully funded for a classroom SMART Board.

• Derrick Hester, “Launching Research and Intervention with Laptops, $5,400 fully funded for laptop computers.

• Dana Freeman, “Give Me Five!.” $1,123.07 fully funded for two sets of workbooks for writing skills.

• Linda Edmonds, “SMARTBoards for SMARTERStudents,” $1,305.68 partially funded for a classroom SMART Board.

U.S. Jones Elementary School

• Amy Ramer, “Make My Class an iClass,” $538 fully funded for an Apple iPad.

• Penny Stanford and Bess Griggers, “The Right Way to Write,” $459.63 fully funded for various writing materials for third-grade students.

• Tammy Causey and Brian Bradley, “Graphic Animated Movement and Exploration in Physical Education,” $3,600 fully funded with a Wii Lab system and screens.

• Dana Hill, “Going Global Using Laptops,” $1,176.54 partial funded for laptop computers.

Westside Elementary School

• Teila Lee, “iPads for Special Education,” $3,883.70 for laptop computers for special needs students.

• Tracy Stewart, “My Laptop and ME,” $680 partially funded for a laptop computer.

• Tracy Stewart, “Elmo in Education,” $555 fully funded for an Elmo visual presenter.

• Beth Fleming, “ELMO – Focus on the Future,” $2,775 partially funded for five ELMO visual presenters.

Demopolis School System

• Carrie Dauphin and Gina Johnston, “Write Where You Are,” $1,420 fully funded for professional development to unify the writing program from K-12.