Supporting Our Local Edgewater Schools

Lumberg Elementary students at an end of the year celebration for the Lumberg Reading Club

Edgewater Collective is devoted to harnessing our community assets toward the biggest needs in our community. Currently, our schools and the children they serve are in need of our support. Over 90% of the children in our area schools are growing up in poverty. We launched the Jefferson Success Pathway last year to rally our community to work together to help all kids in the 80214 zip code succeed from cradle to career.

You can join this effort and invest in our local schools as this school year begins. Specifically, you can donate toward classroom mini-grants for local teachers and sponsor a Jefferson Jr/Sr High student in Goodwill’s Career Plus mentoring program.

This past spring we sponsored a mini-grant for 5th grade teachers at Lumberg Elementary School which allowed most of the 5th grade students to build a rocket and launch it. We were able to watch the excitement as the students saw their rocket shoot into the skies above Edgewater!

This school year we want to provide the funds for more teachers in the Jefferson Area to create innovative classroom projects for their students. The goal of these grants is to provide teachers with extra resources to inspire and educate students in the Jefferson Area.

We will do our best to make sure that those who donate $300 for a Classroom Mini-Grant will have the opportunity to see the project in action within the classroom. There is nothing quite like seeing the eyes of a student light up as they experience something new in the classroom!

Donate $300 and provide an area teacher with a Classroom Mini-Grant.

This fall we are providing the funds to bring Goodwill’s excellent Career Plus mentoring program to Jefferson Jr/Sr High School. Goodwill Careers Plus Mentoring provides a place for current high school students to connect with mentors from the community who are successful in the workplace and want to help students be successful as well. Topics of discussion include but are not limited to teamwork, decision making, career exploration, goal setting, job readiness, communication skills, dressing for success, time management, resumes, and job applications. Students and mentors meet during specified class periods one a weekly basis–once per week for the duration of the school year. Goodwill will also be providing a Women in Leadership class for female students at Jefferson.

Donate $500 and provide one year of mentoring for a Jefferson Jr/Sr High student.

We are looking for business sponsors for this program as well as mentors to invest in Jefferson students. For more information on how your business can be involved in this excellent program, email Joel Newton (joel@edgewatercollective.org).

You can also volunteer as a mentor for Career Plus at Jefferson. More information here.

Joel Newton

Joel has been a resident of Edgewater, Colorado with his family since 2012. He is the Executive Director of local education nonprofit Edgewater Collective and Editor of the Edgewater Echo.