The Worcester County Education Foundation (WCEF) contributed $35,000 to Worcester County schools this week to assist with its ongoing digital conversion efforts. The WCEF, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization created in 2014, provided the funds to help pay for laptop cases and other digital necessities in the coming school year.

As reported in the The Dispatch:

“We want to help Worcester County be the most successful school system it can be,” said Todd Ferrante, chairman of the organization.

The education foundation was launched by a group of local business owners and community leaders in 2014 to help the school system with its digital conversion, the move to provide every student with a digital device. At the time, the foundation set a goal of raising $5 million — roughly the amount it would take to provide each of the school system’s 6,700 students with a digital device.

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Ferrante says the foundation is focused on providing local students with the tools and technology they need to be prepared for college and the world beyond.  In addition to the donations made to the school system so far, the organization has also started offering grants to individual teachers based on innovative learning projects they’ve shared. The WCEF also has plans to create an endowment fund at some point to provide for the future needs of local students.

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He added that there were several options for giving, including basic donations, paycheck deductions and multi-year gifts. Ferrante said several of the substantial donations made by community groups were staggered, so that an organization that gave $50,000 for example was actually giving $10,000 a year for five years.

For more information, read the full article in The Dispatch.