The Royal ISD Education Foundation hosted its annual ice cream social on Sept. 21. The event served as a fundraiser and included a silent auction, entertainment and the announcement of the foundation’s grant awardees for the year.

“After having to cancel last year's ice cream social due to the pandemic, we decided to tie our grant award notifications to the event this year. It was very exciting to see the joy and excitement in the teachers’ faces as their names were called,” said RISD Education Foundation President LaRay Odum. “We are lucky to have great support from the community.”

The event raised money for the foundation by having its Celebrity Scoopers event get competitive, according to an RISD press release. Leaders from the community scooped ice cream and raised money by competing for tips from attendees. A silent auction also helped raise money to support the foundation’s goal of providing resources to the district’s educators and students.

This year’s grant recipients were also announced during the event. The 14 grantees received more than $41,500 in assistance for their classrooms. Grant awardees this year included Gary Miller, 1st Sgt LaShan Bland, Sherlyn Baxley, Paige Stanley, Jillian Pike, Amy Laxton, Andrea Villatoro, Raymond, Callies, Brandon Hein, Roderick Davenport, Clare Morgan, Lilia Brents, Mabely Lituma-Rodas, and the first-grade teachers from the RISD Early Childhood Center: Lilia Brents, Beatriz Rojas, Sara Sanches, Nasra Nofal, Heather Bozeman, Kelsey Nelon, Luz Diaz and Ashley Brandes.

Royal Junior High teacher and grant recipient Clare Morgan said, “The Foundation provides not only funds for classroom resources, like high interest and topical novels, but it also funds the purchase of tickets to see world-class performances at the Alley Theatre which is a first for many of our students. When I told my students they would be seeing a play at the Alley, the cheers of joy and excitement brought a huge smile to my face, all thanks to the generosity of donors and contributions to the Foundation. Overall, the Foundation is such a blessing to our community and provides for the "extras" that make learning fun."