Yancey County’s four elementary schools are beneficiaries of a generous grant from the Yancey Fund, the local partner of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. In a project called “Building Better Bodies; Building Better Minds”, Yancey County Schools requested funding to purchase athletic equipment for all of our elementary schools. Andrea Allen, our Director of Elementary Curriculum, had discovered that during the 18 months our schools were closed due to COVID, much of our physical education equipment had become worn out, damaged, or misplaced. We also had requests from our physical education instructors for new equipment, like Pickleball courts and disc golf. Studies conducted on elementary school children since the COVID pandemic have shown drops in physical fitness due to the lack of structured physical activity during the school shutdown. Our grant proposed to mitigate this by replacing worn out or missing PE equipment and by adding equipment for new activities. Each school received about $1,500 to purchase PE equipment. This has been delivered and is now in use at each school.
Our goal is to improve student learning outcomes by providing opportunities for increasing physical fitness. Studies show that there is a correlation between the two. Yancey County Schools’ elementary school students, parents, teachers, and staff are grateful to the Yancey Fund for recognizing our need and for providing this generous support. We will use this equipment for years to come.
The Yancey Fund is a partner with the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina. The Community Foundation supports programs that impact Early Childhood Development, Food & Farming, Community Services, and Natural and Cultural Resources.
