A Local Girl’s Memory Continues to Strengthen East Lansing Schools
In 1984, Bailey Elementary School student Sarah Tarpoff died after a horseback riding accident. She was 10 years old.
From this devastation, an education foundation was created to help reunite and support a grieving community. As East Lansing Educational Foundation Vice President Kacie Kefgen explained, “it was born out of a tragedy and really hard times.”
As the community mourned Tarpoff’s death, Bailey Elementary School was permanently closed. Sarah’s mom, Diana Tarpoff, decided to use donations made in her daughter’s honor to launch the Liberty Hyde Bailey Educational Foundation as a way to heal and move forward.
“It was a double set of trauma for people here in East Lansing, particularly the Bailey community,” Kefgen said. “I think that tragedy plus Bailey school closing motivated a lot of people to turn those hard emotions into something good.”
Today, the group is known by a different name, the East Lansing Educational Foundation, and it works to improve schools throughout the district. The foundation helps schools in several ways, but two of the most impactful are the grants it provides to enhance educational experiences and the awards it distributes every year.
Right now, the Educational Foundation is accepting nominations for its annual awards ceremony. The ceremony will be held in May and honors notable East Lansing alums, school employees and people who serve the schools and community.
Those who want to nominate someone for an award can do so at this site. The web page also provides information about the five categories of awards the foundation gives out. Nominations are accepted through Friday, Oct. 24 and are kept on file for three years.
The celebration honoring this years award winners will be held at Eagle Eye Golf and Banquet Center. The night will feature dinner, student art, a performance by the East Lansing High School band and speeches from award winners.
“I would encourage folks to take time to reflect on great people they want to honor and who they think will be inspirations for our current students and each other as we are living in the world,” Kefgen said.
The Educational Foundation has a long history of supporting East Lansing schools through its grant program.
In addition to recognizing important members of the school community, the Educational Foundation supports the schools directly through its grant program. Grants provide funding to expand educational opportunities for students and help teachers purchase supplies for their classrooms. Total, the Educational Foundation has provided nearly $1 million in grant funding. Last year, the foundation distributed 44 grants worth $61,519.
“It’s really common that teachers dip into their own pockets to make sure kids have the things they need, or a few little extras that make learning fun and engaging,” Kefgen said.
The Educational Foundation helps educators and students primarily through two different avenues: a single classroom grant and a collaboration grant.
Individual teachers can receive a single classroom grant to help pay for enrichment activities and classroom supplies. Teachers can brainstorm creative ways to use the grant funding to improve their classes. The grants range from $250 to $750.
On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, many young children who had been out of school struggled to transition back to in-person learning, Kefgen said. To help, the Educational Foundation provided grants to purchase social, emotional and self-regulation supplies.
“There are some productive outlets that we can provide to support those classrooms,” Kefgen said. “Instead of kids getting in trouble for not being able to sit still for long periods of time.”
The collaboration grants are meant for larger-scale projects that educators team up to develop. These grants range from $750 to $10,000.
With the help of the Educational Foundation, elementary students had the opportunity to do a writing workshop with hip hop poet Baba Bomani last year.
Other projects the grants have funded include a large-format printer for middle school art students, cooking club materials, and string and orchestra books.
The Educational Foundation has also supported initiatives that work to increase attendance through positive behavior interventions and supports.
“We gave the high school over $5,000 last year to help their attendance support system, so incentives for kids to establish good attendance habits,” Kefgen said. “With those bigger grants, we can make really cool, big impacts when teachers come together and put together some great ideas to support their kids.”