Monday, November 16, 2009

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Last weekend, nearly 300 teachers, administrators, and other school staff from 8 Christian County schools enjoyed a community-driven effort to celebrate their tremendous accomplishments in recent accountability testing.  The Community Accountability Committee organized the event which included schools that achieved scores of 90 or above on accountability testing or reached other milestones. Schools in attendance were:

• Belmont Elementary School
• Heritage Christian Academy
• Sinking Fork Elementary School
• Holiday Elementary School
• Indian Hills Elementary School
• Millbrooke Elementary School
• Pembroke Elementary School
• South Christian Elementary School

This celebration was the second phase of a broader community rewards program.  The next phase will celebrate student success with incentive raffles in the spring of 2010.  All students scoring proficient on accountability testing will receive 1 raffle entry for each applicable subject exam while those scoring distinguished will receive 2 raffle entries. This program was launched in spring of 2009 with incentive reward raffles for seniors at Project Graduation.

Thanks to the continued generosity and outpouring of community support, the committee has raised over $27,000 in cash and in-kind contributions, including a 2010 Toyota Yaris valued at $15,000 from Toyota of Hopkinsville.  The Yaris will be raffled in the fall of 2010 to a member of the Class of 2011. 

We still need your help and we continue working toward our fundraising goal of an additional $1,500 to meet the expenses of what we hope will become an annual program.  We would like to encourage all the local businesses, local corporation leadership, local organizations, and individuals of Christian County to support the efforts of our community in recognizing our schools for their hard work.  Monetary support can be sent to:

CCEC Community Accountability Committee

Attn:  Tammie Hargrove

P.O. Box 2900

Hopkinsville, KY  42241-2900

Checks can be made payable to the Greater Hopkinsville Chamber Community Foundation with a notation for the Community Rewards Fund in the memo section.  We appreciate the continued focus and support on Awareness of public education issues, substantive Action by the Community at large, with Higher Achievement for all students as the goal. 

Other program sponsors include:

Distinguished Donors

• Toyota of Hopkinsville
• Christian County Public Schools
• Hopkinsville Community College
• The City of Hopkinsville
• James E. Bruce Convention Center
• Jennie Stuart Medical Center
• Kentucky New Era
• Wal-Mart Distribution Center
• BB&T
• Pennyrile Rural Electric
• Hopkinsville-Christian County Chamber of Commerce
• Wal-Mart Superstore – Oak Grove
• Leadership Hopkinsville-Christian County Classes of 2008 and 2009

Proficient Donors

• WKDZ/WHVO
• Starbucks Coffee Company
• Wynn L. Radford, III
• English Lacy & Company, LLC
• Hopkinsville Electric System
• Planters Bank
• Continental Mills
• Jeff & Angie Strader
• Kem, Duguid & Associates
• Solly’s Office Supplies
• Gracious Me!
• The Willows
• Summer Opticals
• Peebles
• Southern Printing
• The Horseshoe Steak House
• O’Charley’s – Ft Campbell Blvd Hopkinsville
• Arby’s – Ft Campbell Blvd Hopkinsville
• Pizza Hut – Ft Campbell Blvd Hopkinsville
• Little Caesars – Ft Campbell Blvd Hopkinsville
• McDonald’s – Ft Campbell Blvd Hopkinsville

We are excited about the continued outpouring of support for education initiatives and look forward to working with the community on what is becoming a continued project.  For more information or if you are interested in joining the committee, please contact Sandy Grogan at (270) 707-2002 or Kim Batts at (270) 887-7008 for additional information.

Sincerely,