The Talladega City Schools Foundation awarded grants totaling $9,256 to teachers in the city school system last week. The grants will pay for a diversity of teaching aids, ranging from iPads to pH testers, a keyboard for the high school band to tackling equipment for the varsity football team, an art program to specially weighted vests for autistic students.

Foundation President Graham Hadley said that to improve the likelihood of requests being granted, foundation members visited the schools and explained what they were looking for. “We want to see permanent programs that go straight into the hands of the kids,” he said.

The grants average just over $500 each, which only sounds like a lot of money if you don’t have it. But the teachers receiving the grants know just how far it will stretch, and

nobody can stretch a dollar further than a teacher can.

The foundation was able to fund about half the grants requested, and about half the grant money was raised by one man: Bob McBride, a 1948 Talladega High School graduate. For his efforts on behalf of the school system, McBride received the Community Education Advancement award at the foundation banquet.

The Foundation also recognized its Teacher of the Year, Cari Wilson, who teaches fourth grade at R.L. Young Elementary.

Congratulations to Wilson and to the teachers receiving the foundation grants. And thank you to McBride, Hadley and all the hard-working foundation members who make these grants possible.