As a result of the foundation, Turnitin.com will become a pilot program at West Allegheny High School this fall. Though the pilot will focus on English, history and science, the service will be available to all high school teachers. Fox says the program has a wide application, considering the importance of writing across multiple curriculums.

Because everything is done digitally, the school will also save paper. That’s significant, since about 120 students pass through Fox’s classroom and others every school day.   

   All told, this year the West Allegheny Foundation awarded well over $7,000 to school district and community projects. Now in its 10th year, foundation president and North Fayette Police Sgt. John

Bates estimates that the foundation has awarded over $250,000 to community and school-related projects. That money also includes college scholarships, which are awarded to two graduating WA students each year.

   To raise money, the foundation relies on a combination of private donations from individuals and businesses, an annual golf outing, and teachers voluntarily donating $5 monthly out of their paychecks. It also raises money through its annual Teacher’s Cup event, for which students and the public pay admission to watch teachers and aides duke it out in a series of fun competitions.

   Bates, who is also the district’s school resource officer, and has been the foundation’s president since its start, says that they have never turned down a grant application that has met its application requirements.

   “We’ve been fortunate enough to have the money in the fund [to award those grants],” he says.

   Foundation member Patrick Konieczny says that Bates has played a critical role in the fundraising aspect of the foundation.

   “His dedication to the kids is what drives him,” says Konieczny about Bates. “Over the years, he’s built a lot of respect in the community.”

   Bates took on the program after Pat Jennette, this magazine’s founding publisher and the school’s communications coordinator at the time, brought the idea to school administrators in the early 1990s. Teaming up with Jerry Wessel, the school’s business administrator at the time, Jennette and Wessel continued to explore the idea and get others involved.   

   Since then, teachers have submitted dozens of grants to the foundation asking for money to help pilot new programs or build on existing ones. Grants have helped pay for GPS units to teach students about geocaching and tickets to attend musicals in Pittsburgh. In 2007, it provided over 3,000 feet of cable to wire the school’s videography lab to the gymnasium and enable it to broadcast over the Internet. Another grant helped purchase nets to convert the middle school gym into an indoor tennis court. 

   Foundation money has helped fund a leadership seminar for eighth grade girls, purchase contemporary novels, and take students on a safari photo shoot at the zoo, just to name a few.  At Donaldson Elementary School, it has helped fund special reading programs, among a number of other initiatives. School principal Patricia Nolan says the grants enable teachers to pilot programs that can potentially become part of their regular repertoire.

   “Our teachers are very appreciative of what the foundation does,” she says. “The work they do helps our students.”

   Fox sees the foundation’s work in a similar light.  

   “The foundation has helped us when we had an idea and wanted to try a pilot program,” says Fox, who has been a part of previous grants. “I am grateful that they’ve backed us up when we wanted to help students, and have shown us that support.”

   Konieczny says that one of the things he likes about the foundation is its ability to help teachers who are going above and beyond to explore ways to help students. 

   In addition to school-related projects, the foundation has also helped realize numerous local community projects. In 2009, the foundation contributed $4,000 of the $15,000 Frank Blaskowitz and Ann Anzaroot needed to plant the Liberty Tree Grove in Donaldson Park. Each tree was grown from a clipping of an historically significant tree and honors a different branch of the military. Aside from a local attraction, it’s also become a teaching tool and the focus of three Eagle Scout projects.

   “Without [the foundation’s] grant, it might not have happened,” says Blaskowitz.

   Following Hurricane Ivan, the foundation purchased a new fence and flagpole for the Oakdale Youth League. It’s also helped purchase a pinewood derby track for a local Boy Scout troop, and improved the batting cages and fence at Huck Field in Oakdale.

   Foundation trustee John Stitch says that those projects and others have helped give the foundation exposure in the community, and as more people have realized its benefits, more members are joining.

   “Over the past year or so, there’s definitely been an uptick in membership,” says Stitch.

   He says there’s also been growing support among teachers who are opting to support the organization.

   Foundation vice president Jerry Kehm says he’s hoping that the organization’s good deeds and a general sense of responsibility will continue to attract donors and members.

   “We do it because we want to help the kids, and because we want to give back to the community,” says Kehm. “But that’s what you do.”

   As for Bates, Kehm says he’s the one that “makes it all tick,” but Bates says it’s just as much a group effort.

   “We have over 25 members working as a team toward a common goal,” he says. •

   To learn more about the West Allegheny Foundation, visit

www.wafoundation.net, or call Sgt. John Bates at (724) 695-5258.