Lamar Educational Awards Foundation Grants More Than $200K to Educators

A Brighter Future Starts
With A Good Education

Building Bright
Futures Through
Education
We’re proud of our community—and we know that there are outstanding leaders here who want what’s best for their children
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That’s why we’ve dedicated ourselves to creating change in our schools:
We believe every child deserves
an excellent education!
The Lamar Educational Awards Foundation is a non-profit community-based organization dedicated to securing and distributing resources to the students, staff, and campuses of the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District that will supplement, enhance, and enrich the quality of education.

LEAF History
The Lamar Educational Award Foundation was founded in 1985 to support education by providing grants and scholarships to teachers, students, and schools.
Since its foundation, it has given away over one million dollars.
In the early 1970s a small group of music supervisors from the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex met together periodically to share ideas and help each other with mutual related music concerns. This group began to expand and so we moved our meetings to Crystal’s Pizza restaurant in Irving and found our meetings becoming more beneficial to each other. The meetings remained informal with no set agenda and no officers; the only constant was that I arranged the site and sent a reminder letter each month to the group. We all looked forward to our monthly meeting and always left the meetings with new ideas and a refreshed sense of purpose in our work.
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As the group enlarged in our area and across the state, we felt it would be beneficial to have music administration opportunities specifically targeting our work-related concerns at the TMEA conventions and summer meetings. The first TMAC officers were elected in February, 1983 at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio. The following people were elected as the charter officers of the TMAC organization: President R.J. (Dick) Winters, Music Coordinator for the Plano Independent School District; Vice President Woody Schober, Director of Music, Irving ISD; and Secretary-Treasurer Ken Howard, Music Supervisor, Waco ISD. Following the election of officers, meetings and workshops were scheduled at TMEA and at the summer conventions. These meetings addressed various topics including budget, curriculum, personnel, public relations, planning and organization, etc.
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As a music educator who spent 30 years in music administration, I was grateful for the help and assistance I received as a member of TMAC and applaud those now who are continuing to provide this worthwhile organization for the continued advancement of music education in our state.



At LEAF
we have several goals:
To support and provide unique resources and innovative teaching ideas by funding field trips to an art museum or an outdoor classroom.
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To support the fine arts, including instruments and field trips. We may also fund travel for students who are participating in competitions.
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To further enhance math instruction by funding innovative math instruction or awarding scholarships to students majoring in education who want to improve their skill set in math courses.
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To provide funding for reading programs such as Eureka! Ranch Reading Program or Reading Partners. These programs help students achieve higher levels of literacy which helps them succeed academically.
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Establish outdoor classrooms so students can enjoy learning outdoors while still experiencing the benefits of being in a classroom setting.