Supporting Our Education Community

OUR MISSION

The Elgin Schools Education Foundation’s mission is to encourage and inspire excellence for students and educators through community, alumni, and staff support. We strive to achieve funding to provide scholarships to each senior continuing their education and classroom grants to each educator.

DONATE

Join the Parliament to help support teachers' dreams for students through teacher grants and the dreams of students through scholarship opportunities. We have multiple ways to donate that are just the fit for you.

MEET THE BOARD

We’re excited to introduce the dedicated members of the Elgin Schools Education Foundation (ESEF) board! This passionate group of local leaders and parents work hard to enhance educational opportunities and create lasting impacts for our students.

About ESEF

The Elgin Schools Education Foundation strives to inspire students and teachers through scholarships and grants. This requires community, alumni, and administration support to become successful.

Upcoming Events

It was a great day to drop a little reminder that ESEF Teacher Grant applications are due October 24th!!! Even better when the reminder came with a sweet treat and members of the ESEF board to wish our teachers a great Parent Teacher Conference day!

Also pictured is one of the past recipients of an ESEF Teacher Grant. Mrs. Bonadonna was awarded a grant to transform her classroom with flexible seating. Her classroom is a crowd favorite of her fifth grade students! Thank you for sharing with us!

If you’d like to be a part of making a difference at Elgin Public Schools, we’d love you to consider becoming a donor! Head over to our website www.elginschoolsfoundation.org to find out how you can be involved!! ♥️🦉

Welcome back to school Owls!!! We at ESEF would like to wish you a great school year!

Last week, we kicked off the new school year by catering in Burrito Mico for the Elgin Public Schools Back to School Teacher Breakfast before speaking to them about ESEF, our mission and telling them a little about what we do. 📚🍎 Thank you EPS for inviting us to come share what we do at your welcome assembly!

In case you’d like a refresher… ESEF formed in 2017 and we operate as a 501c3. Our mission at ESEF is to inspire academic excellence by providing resources to enhance education here at Elgin Public Schools. We aim to do this through two main projects. We award student scholarships to Elgin seniors as well as fund classroom grants for teachers.

We fund these two core projects by securing and distributing contributions made to the foundation. These contributions come from local businesses, individuals, alumni and today we’d like to take the opportunity to say a really big thank those Elgin Public School educators and staff that make contributions to ESEF through their paychecks- as teachers/staff they already do so much to impact our students and provide for their classrooms, and it means so much to us at ESEF to be able to put their additional contributions to work in good places!

Last school year we were proud to use your contributions to ESEF to award SIX $500 scholarships to Elgin seniors and we were proud to award FOUR different classroom grants totaling $4712.

We are proud to announce that our website will be going live soon (follow us for more updates on that) and that you can always donate to ESEF directly by using the link in our bios or scanning the QR code! Please join with us in wishing Elgin Public Schools faculty, staff, and students a wonderful school year!! ❤️🦉

School may be out for summer, but at ESEF our mission is year round! Last week we awarded SIX scholarships in the amount of $500/each to some well deserving Owls. These scholarships are made possible by our generous donors.

If you would like to further our work to better Elgin Public School classrooms through grants or get our Owl Seniors started off on their higher education journey with a Senior Scholarship… use our QR code featured here or link in bio to make a contribution to ESEF today! 🦉📚♥️

Pictured: Merrick Ballou (ESEF scholarship recipient for 2025) and Misty Jung (ESEF board member)

Please join us in congratulating our ESEF Senior Scholarship recipients for 2025! We had a record number of applicants and we are honored to award SIX scholarships this year. These scholarships are for $500 each and can be used for tuition or supplies to the university/school of their choice.

THANK YOU for allowing ESEF to be the steward of your generosity. Our work at ESEF would not be possible without our donors. If you would like to join us in our mission to support EPS students and teachers you can donate using the QR code or with our link in our bio!

Congrats to the EPS Class of 2025! We are proud of you!!!

Welcome back to ESEF’s Meet the Board series! We will be introducing you to a member of the ESEF Board and telling you a little bit about each of them!

Today’s spotlight is our ESEF Board Secretary, Kellie Thomas.

Kellie’s ties to EPS center on family her experience as an Elgin HS teacher. Her husband, Joe, is a volunteer HS baseball coach for the Elgin O’s and her oldest son Jake, and his wife Kenzie, are Elgin alumni. Their youngest son Grady will graduate as an Owl this year.

When asked why she wanted to be involved with ESEF Kellie said, “ESEF involvement was a natural service choice because I truly enjoy giving to others and I LOVE the community of Elgin”.

Kellie is “thrilled to see ESEF taking steps to grow its support in donations & fundraising which will expand our outreach in EPS w/ greater scholarship & grant opportunities”.

Kellie works alongside her husband in their cattle producing operation & their custom hay cutting business. Daily, you can find her soaking up their youngest son’s last year of HS baseball, feeding cattle, & caring for their grandson, Cooper.

Thank you, Kellie, for being an essential part of the Elgin Schools Education Foundation! 🍎🦉

Last week our Student Scholarship committee met, blind read applications and selected the recipients for ESEF’s Student Scholarships. We are excited to share those names in May when we award the scholarships. Thank you to everyone that donated to ESEF to make this possible. We are proud to be able to support our Elgin seniors’ next steps in furthering their education!

If you’re interested in donating to ESEF you can use the link in our bio and DONATE today! 🦉♥️📚

ESEF wants to extend a big THANK YOU to Mr. Dewayne Workman for becoming the FIRST “Gold Level” ESEF Parliament donor for 2025. Your generous donation will support EPS Students and Teachers. Thank you for inspiring others to become a member of ESEF Parliament today! 👏🏼

What is a Parliament?:
A Parliament is a group of owls. Owls are often associated with wisdom and intelligence, which may be why a group of them is called a “parliament”. For ESEF, Parliament is a level of yearly giving made by generous donors with a mission of supporting EPS Students & Teachers. 🦉

To become a member of ESEF Parliament, you can make a YEARLY donation at any of the following levels:
RUBY: $1000+
PLATINUM: $750
GOLD: $500
SILVER: $250
BRONZE: $125

Becoming a member of ESEF Parliament will mean that you or your business will receive special recognitions for your generosity throughout the year. 🙌🏼

Not quite ready to join ESEF Parliament but still want to support ESEF’s mission? No problem!!! You can still donate ANY amount at any time through our QR code or link in our Bio! You can also become a champion of our mission by liking our pages on socials, sharing our posts and spreading the word!!! Each one of you is invaluable to us in whatever way you can offer your support! 🍎🦉♥️

Welcome back to ESEF’s Meet the Board series! Each week, we will be introducing you to a member of the ESEF Board and telling you a little bit about each of them!

Today’s spotlight is our ESEF Board Vice President, Jena Good.

Jena is a 2008 graduate of Elgin Public Schools and now mother of a 6th grade Owl herself. Her experience as a student and parent has shaped her drive to support Elgin Public Schools through her work with ESEF.

When asked why she wanted to be involved with ESEF Jena said, “I have a great love of Elgin Schools and the community that supported me as a student. Now, that love has shifted as I am a mom of an Elgin student… it is a dream to be working to be one of those ‘adults’ that I admired so much. They came back to EPS and poured into us as students in their roles as teachers, parents and volunteers. I want to inspire the community and alumni to give back to the school system that gave so much to us”.

This year Jena is “focused on growing ESEF as much as possible and excited to share ESEF with the community and all fellow (Elgin) Owl Alumna. We may have flown the nest but it’s time to come together and give back”.

Outside of her work, Jena enjoys traveling with her son to as many sporting events as possible, chasing him around to his many activities, fostering her grocery related social media community, being active in her church and enjoying time with her family & friends.

Thank you, Jena, for being an essential part of the Elgin Schools Education Foundation! 🍎🦉

Looking to make a difference today? We would love for you to consider making a donation to the Elgin Schools Education Foundation. Your generosity will go on to support our Elgin Public Schools Seniors through awarding scholarships as well as Elgin educators through our Classroom Grant program!

Use the QR code or the link in our bio to donate today! You may also copy the link here! ♥️🦉📚

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Welcome to ESEF’s Meet the Board series! 👋🏼

Each week, we will be introducing you to a member of the ESEF Board and telling you a little bit about each one of them!

Today’s spotlight is our ESEF Board President Kori Eslick. 🥰

Kori’s connection to Elgin Public Schools starts with her children, she is the proud mother of a Senior and Freshman Owl and a member of the Elgin community since 2004. Her desire to serve the Elgin community has also inspired her work with ESEF.

When asked why she wanted to be involved with ESEF she said, “Elgin Schools has been amazing and I’m grateful my children have been students here. I saw ESEF as a way for myself, fellow community members, and business owners to support the staff and students”.

This year Kori is “excited for the opportunity to really start growing the foundation (ESEF) to be able to fund more teacher grants and student scholarships”.

Outside of work, Kori stays busy supporting her boys in all their sports and activities and her husband in their cattle operation.

Thank you, Kori, for being an essential part of the Elgin Schools Education Foundation! 🍎🦉

Classroom Grant update: 💻🎧

This December, ESEF awarded Mrs. Powell a grant for a set of classroom headphones. Mrs. Powell’s Middle School students now have the ability to use headphones in her classes and not rely on having their own. We are excited to see her grant at work in her classroom! 🙌🏼🦉

Check out the link in our Bio to donate to ESEF to help fund more classroom grants and student scholarships in the future. ♥️

Our mission at ESEF is to inspire academic excellence by providing resources to enhance education at Elgin Public Schools. We aim to do this through ✌🏼two main projects. We award student scholarships to Elgin seniors as well as fund classroom grants for our teachers.

We fund our two core projects by securing and distributing contributions made to the foundation. These contributions come from local businesses, individuals, alumni and also EPS Teachers & Staff through contributions from their pay checks. 🥹

Today, we’d like to congratulate the recipients of our 2024/2025 Classroom Grants. 🍎 We had a record number of applicants this year and we were pleased to award the following teachers with grants before Christmas break:

Lacey Landers: Bugs for Kinder
Chloe Kane: Stitching Together a Community
Sherry Powell: Classroom Headphone Set
Kristin Reid: Flexible Classroom Seating

CONGRATULATIONS!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

We funded $4712.02 in Classroom Grants this year and we couldn’t have done it without all donors! We’d like to take this opportunity to say a really big THANK YOU those of you that make contributions to ESEF it means so much to us to be able to put your contributions to work in good places. ♥️

Stay tuned to hear how YOU can contribute to these exciting projects! 🦉

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Supporting Our Education Community

About ESEF

​Upcoming Events

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Upcoming Events