Concessions-stand work allows foundation to double its grant money to $24,000

The success of fundraising efforts through Lambeau Field concession sales is providing a handsome payoff for the Grafton Education Foundation.

The foundation recently announced that it will be able to award $24,000 in grant money to Grafton public schools this year, more than twice the amount presented in its 2011 inaugural year.

Foundation officials attributed the increased revenue to a concession-stand project at Lambeau Field during the Green Bay Packers’ 2011 season. As a nonprofit group running a 26-person stand in Section 326 at the stadium since the preseason, the foundation received 10% of the net sales.

Throughout the season, about 250 volunteers traveled from the Grafton area to Lambeau on game days.

“We are so grateful to everyone in the Grafton community who had donated huge chunks of time to work the concession stand this year,” said Renee Riddle, a foundation board member and project coordinator.

Last year, the foundation awarded $12,000 for a variety of projects, including installing a low-ropes challenge course in the woods behind Grafton High School and buying iPads for special-education and occupational-therapy students.

This April, another foundation grant will allow every eighth-grader in Grafton public schools to participate in a Reality Store project that teaches personal finance skills.

“We can’t wait to see what ideas our Grafton educators will come up with this years,” said Bob Hoffman, foundation president. “Exciting things are happening thanks to these grants.”

The foundation was established as a nonprofit corporation to help close funding gaps for educational programs in the five Grafton public schools. This year’s grant applications are being accepted until March 1.

For information is available at www.graftoneducationfoundation.org.

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