Hawley Education Foundation
Clay County
Donate
To comply with bank requirements and prevent delays in deposits, all checks must be issued to West Central Initiative, with “Hawley Education Foundation” in your check’s memo field.
Credit card payments will list West Central Initiative as the merchant on your bill, but by using this donation page, your donation will be given to the Hawley Education Foundation.
Designating West Central Initiative as the payee ensures that the Internal Revenue Service recognizes your tax-deductible contribution.
Our Story
The Hawley Education Foundation (HEF) is dedicated to advancing, promoting, and enhancing educational programs for every student in Hawley Public Schools, from kindergarten through 12th grade. Follow us on Facebook: Hawley Education Foundation
Founded in 2002 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Foundation was created to provide lasting support for our schools. In 2019, after a period of dormancy, the Foundation was relaunched with a renewed mission: to be the only organization in Hawley focused exclusively on classroom impact.
Our Classroom Impact
In the past five years alone, HEF has invested more than $40,000 directly into Hawley classrooms—bringing educational experiences to life that would not have been possible otherwise. Through our generous donors and teacher grants, we’ve supported:
- Classroom technology: projectors, Optima boards, lightboards
- Music and arts: guitars with cases, drums, time-period costumes, ukulele cases
- Literacy and learning tools: novels, maps, math extension activities, calculators, letter tiles, microscopes
- Well-being and physical education: calming room materials, PE equipment
- STEM and innovation: MakerSpace resources, creative supplies, pollinator garden
Every donation fuels hands-on, engaging, and inclusive learning opportunities for our students.
What Sets Us Apart
While Hawley is fortunate to have many strong support organizations—such as the Booster Club, PTO, and Scholarship Foundation—HEF is the only group focused entirely on enhancing classroom learning across all grades. Whether through flexible teacher grants or larger capital projects, we’re filling a vital gap in educational support and innovation.
Our Board
HEF is guided by a passionate, all-volunteer board of educators, parents, community leaders, and school officials:
- Jon Lowry – President
- Case Muscatell – Vice President
- Kate Martin – Treasurer
- Abigail Masten – Secretary
- Phil Jensen – Superintendent
- Emily Odland – School Board Representative
- Eric Lee – Elementary Representative
- Molly Schenck – High School Representative
- Jane Eklund – Advisor
Together, we are committed to ensuring every Hawley student has access to an innovative, first-class education.
Contact Information: hawleyedfoundation@wcif.org
Golden Gala 2025: A Night to Remember
What an unforgettable evening! The first annual Golden Gala was filled with laughter, connection, and a shared commitment to supporting Hawley students and teachers.
From the delicious dinner to the fabulous live music, every detail at Venue 31 was perfectly planned. The weather couldn’t have been better, the games brought big prizes and bigger laughs, and the room was full of sparkle—everyone looked amazing!
Most importantly, together we raised funds to fuel creativity in classrooms and spark student success. Your support ensures that teachers have the resources they need to inspire, innovate, and empower every Nugget—today and for generations to come.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support, celebrate, and make the first annual Golden Gala a night to remember. This is just the beginning—together, we’re shaping what’s possible inside Hawley classrooms.
— Hawley Education Foundation
Grant Highlights
2025-2026 Grant Winners
- 1st-grade Teachers
- Phonetic Magnetic Learning to Strengthen Early Literacy
- Ally Hokanson: 2nd Grade Teacher
- Fostering Literacy Through Art, Creative Writing and Science
- Kara Hansen: 5th Grade Teacher
- Creating a Pollinator Garden
- Lauren Wander Holleman & Tasha Meyer: Music Teachers
- Ukulele Storage Cases & 7 sets of Hand Bells
- Alyson Brenna: PE Teacher
- Building Lifelong Skills through Golf
- Ann Marie Stewart: English Teacher
- A Library Kiosk for checking out books
- Nathan Brager: Science Teacher
- Boreal Science Student Stereomicroscopes
2023-2024 Grant Spotlight: Ms. Ann Marie Stewart
Empowering Independent Readers with a Digital Checkout System
Thanks to the support of the Hawley Education Foundation, Ms. Ann Marie Stewart transformed her classroom library into a streamlined, student-friendly checkout system—enhancing access to over 450 books for 140 eager readers.
Faced with the challenge of tracking hundreds of books and students on paper, Ms. Stewart quickly realized she needed a digital solution. The original plan to use a traditional scanner fell short—it required connection to her main computer, interrupting other classroom processes. So, she got creative.
Leveraging the grant, she purchased a new computer to support a more flexible system. She paired it with an old, but trusty, iPad and keyboard to run a simple scanning app—finding one of the few that actually worked well. This new setup now acts as a kiosk, letting students easily check books in and out without disrupting the flow of the school day.
The result? Her students are loving the new book sets purchased through the grant, and the checkout system makes accessing them a breeze. Ms. Stewart reflects,
– Ann Marie Stewart
“It couldn’t have happened without the grant!”
We’re proud to support innovative educators like Ms. Stewart who go the extra mile to ignite a love of reading in every student.
Transforming Learning with the Optima Board
Thanks to a Grant from the Hawley Education Foundation
We are thrilled to share the incredible impact of a recent grant awarded by the Hawley Education Foundation, which made it possible to bring two Optoma Boards to the Spring Prairie Hutterite Colony in the Hawley School District.
Thanks to this generous support, our teaching and learning environment has been transformed. The Optoma Boards have added a whole new level of interactivity and engagement to our lessons—sparking curiosity, collaboration, and creativity among our students.
Highlights of the Impact
- Boosted Student Participation: Especially during collaborative problem-solving and class discussions.
- Enhanced Visual & Tactile Learning: Students now interact with content in dynamic, hands-on ways.
- Flexible, Tech-Integrated Instruction: With seamless access to educational apps and tools that align with our curriculum.
This innovative technology is not just a tool—it’s a game-changer. We’ve seen firsthand how it empowers students to take an active role in their learning and supports a wide variety of learning styles.
A heartfelt thank you to the Hawley Education Foundation for believing in our vision and investing in the students of the Spring Prairie Hueteruitte Colony. We’re excited to continue exploring new ways to innovate and inspire with the Optoma Boards!
Grant Announcement: Supporting Student Well-Being at Hawley High School
Thanks to the Hawley Education Foundation
With the help of a generous grant from the Hawley Education Foundation, students at Hawley High School now have access to even more tools to support emotional well-being in the newly created Calming Space.
The Calming Space is part of the school’s new Student Support Services area, opened in October. Designed with intention, it features natural light, comfy furniture, plants, fidgets, sensory tools, and art supplies—creating a peaceful place for students who need to pause, breathe, and reset during a tough day.
The grant made it possible to purchase an iPad with a protective case, headphones, styluses, and funds to access ad-free, high-quality calming apps. Students can now use the iPad for art and coloring apps, music, mindfulness and breathing exercises, and calming games—all designed to help them regulate emotions and return to class ready to learn.
More digital tools and apps will continue to be added, with help from the district, to ensure students have a wide variety of supportive options at their fingertips.
Special thanks to Tracy Baxter for helping select the right technology and apps to meet student needs—and a big thank you to the Hawley Education Foundation for making this resource possible for Hawley High School students!
“8th graders completed a tchoukball unit last week! When asked how they would rate tchoukball, the common answer was 8 of 10. For middle school kids, that means they really like it!”
Thank you, HEF!
~Alyson Brenna, PE Teacher
Guitars
“We have 16 new yamaha guitars. They are beautiful! The 5th and 6th grade students for next year are excited for this opportunity. They will be used along with the remaining guitars from the late 70’s. Thank you to the Hawley Education Foundation Grant!”
Sara Klingfus – Music Teacher
Classroom guitar reaches many students with basic information on guitar playing. This includes: parts of the guitar, how to hold the guitar, how to read guitar chord charts, how to strum and change chords, how to sing and play at the same time. Learning guitar is another way to engage and reach more students. Guitar is taught at the elementary in grade 5 for 6 weeks. This is something that all students can use lifelong.
Expected Impact: 75-210 Students every year.
Technology for Enhanced Instruction
Kim Ulven – World History Instructor
The Touchjet can turn any wall or table into an 80” interactive touch screen, enabling students to interact with thousands of educational apps.
In World History classes, maps are used for every chapter. The Touchjet will be a great tool to enhance map skills and add to class participation and instruction integration. It will be used to visit and examine places in history. It will also be used in Advanced Placement Psychology and General Psychology for onlines assessments, experiments, and visual aids. For Economics and personal finance, students could examine charts and graphs ranging from the stock market crash/Great Depression Era to political polls.
Expected Impact: 60-120 students every year.
Spanish Novels
Marlee Schmidt Olson – Spanish Instructor
Two sets of Spanish novels (La Vampirata and Bianca Nieves) and their accompanying teacher’s guides will be used to teach past tense grammar to students. Students generally struggle to learn the past tense because it is grammatically complex. This difficulty distracts students from more advanced courses. These books will present the concepts in an engaging and comprehensible manner. More students will be retained in the advanced Spanish courses and the program will grow.
Expected Impact: 40 Students per year for 5 years.
Bringing History to Life
Nicole Martin – Third Grade Teacher & Social Studies and Reading Committee
Reenactments provide an engaging and hands on approach to teaching history. When students dress up in costumes they are more engaged and develop a personal connection with historical events. Historical costumes and replica artifacts were purchased to engage, enhance and better meet the needs. Students will create movies and skits and complete writing projects and assessments.
Expected Impact: 180-250 students each year (3rd, 4th, 5th Grade)
American History – Rise of Sectionalism
Steve Pasche – American History Instructor
One of the key events in the period leading up to the Civil War is the Dred Scott Supreme Court ruling. This is considered a seminal event in bringing about the Civil War. The book, A Family’s Struggle for Freedom, will be integrated into the curriculum, and will allow students to gain a much deeper understanding of the significance of the Dred Scott decision, and its role in triggering the Civil War.
Expected Impact: 75-90 Students per year
