Nancy Orr Elliott was a long-time educator and school board member at Ubly Community Schools. During her more than 40 year career, Nancy taught over 5,500 students at Ubly and at Michigan colleges and universities. She was a nationally awarded educator and provided her writing talent to educational publishing companies across the United States. HCCF is honored to administer an endowment in her memory that continues her legacy of impacting students.

The Nancy Orr Elliott Memorial Educator Fund awarded its first $1,000 in grants this fall. The fund’s purpose is to support educators as they enhance the educational experience of students at Ubly Schools. Educators completed a brief application sharing their vision for academic success through classroom enhancements.

Three different grants were awarded during the inaugural year: the Ubly FFA, Kindergarten classrooms, and fifth grade classrooms,

Inspired by the “Kite Project”, Ubly FFA will use grant dollars to support Project F.F.A. (Food For All). This project will take place both inside and outside of the classroom. Students will engage with broiler chickens, focusing on the science of development, in the classroom and then take their skills to the Broiler Contest. The final goal of the project is to donate the 200 birds to families in need in the Ubly community.

With grant dollars, the fifth grade classrooms will have year long access to Nearpod. Nearpod is a multimedia platform aimed at increasing student engagement across all academic areas. The students will have access to digital lessons in academics, social-emotional learning, and extracurricular activities like virtual field trips. Formative assessments are used throughout the software to ensure students are developing critical thinking skills alongside the lessons.

The Kindergarten classrooms will receive additional Knowledge Units with their grant. Each of the classrooms will have access to new books that further the students education in new vocabulary and language awareness to make the students better writers and readers. The books will be read aloud to help students understand the themes and make connections across the books.

This fund will continue to be available for Ubly educators at the beginning of each school year, forever. Nancy was known for her ability to engage all students in her classroom. These grants and this fund will help continue that legacy in perpetuity.