Brad Moore, Chairman of the Big Sandy Education Foundation, announced the winners of the Foundation logo contest. He mentioned the Foundation has given Big Sandy education over $100,000 since its formation. While the Foundation worked with First Bank and the Big Sandy Rotary on the Backpack Project last August, they realized they needed a logo. They contacted Jessie Jaramillo, Big Sandy High School's art teacher, and asked her for help. She had her students design a logo for the Foundation. The winners are: London Keane, Heather Sherburn, Korbyn Jurenka, and Eva Yeadon. Each Student received a $50 gift certificate. The Education Foundation also gave the Art Department a $500 check to be used as Jessie Jaramillo believes is the best use of the funds.
The students were free to design the logo in any way they wanted, but they were also given an example of a tree with roots representing growth and the Foundation's support for education from the ground up.
The Education Foundation has developed into a strong foundation, as an article in the Mountaineer in 2020 stated: "The Big Sandy Education Foundation has been quietly working to improve our local schools and help students for nearly five years. The less well-known foundation has given over $25,000 to classroom projects at the schools and over $8,000 in scholarships in the last five years."
The Foundation's mission is clear and unwavering: to enhance the educational opportunities for the students at Big Sandy Schools. Every request they receive is carefully considered, with the mission serving as the guiding principle. The Foundation is not here to replace the school's financial responsibilities, such as textbooks. Instead, they are here to enrich the opportunities for the students, ensuring a brighter future for them.
Officially launched in the spring of 2015 when a potential donor approached Brad Moore and told him, "If you guys can establish a 501(c)3 foundation, we may be able to contribute to you." He explained: "Because of the way the tax laws had been, they wanted to donate to someone who was a 501(c)3. That was in the fall of 2013. So, I started the process right away. I used a school attorney to help with the paperwork. And then an accountant out of Billings agreed to help us out at a bargain rate to put it all together and deal with all of the filings with the state and the feds. It took us about 18 months to get that done and become official. So, in the spring of 2015, the federal government granted us our 501(c)3 status. That's how it got started."
Brad Moore is the chairman of the Big Sandy Education Foundation. Shaud Schwarzbach, Erica Chauvet, Bart Bitz, and Gin Edwards are the other directors. The Foundation is not affiliated with the school but works to support it.
"The directors are always excited to be able to contribute to projects in Big Sandy that benefit the kids and our community.
"We are deeply grateful for all our donors who have played a crucial role in establishing and sustaining the Foundation. Your support has allowed us to make a significant impact in our community for a long time. We are appreciative all the way around and happy to be able to help out where we can. We feel very fortunate that we can do that and help out. We continue to encourage people to apply for funds for those things and if donors want to try to set up anything for the long term, too. We'll gladly help them out."
