FIRE expands reach, shares mission

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
Board members of the FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa are taking their message of inclusive education on the road. Realizing the growing need to help Catholic schools be more inclusive, they plan to host events around the diocese to share their mission and their impact in the coming months.
 
FIRE on the Water is the first “friendraiser” event, set for May 19 at the Cobb Tavern in Storm Lake. Social hour begins at 4:30 p.m. with an introduction to the FIRE Foundation at 5:30 p.m. Guests will enjoy complimentary pizza and beverages courtesy of Central Bank and “learn more about our mission and our goals to bring inclusive education to the area’s Catholic schools,” from the event poster.
 
Bridging the gap
“We are seeing the needs for services grow as evidenced by our last grant cycle round where we got $400,000 in requests for funds,” Dr. Ryan Allen, foundation president explained. “Although we were able to award more money than ever before - $80,000 - that’s still a huge gap.”
 
Earlier this spring, the foundation announced that it awarded grants to six Catholic schools throughout the diocese to support inclusive education efforts and expand support for students with diverse learning needs. Awards ranged from $30,000 to $550 through the FIRE Foundation major and micro grant programs.
 
Allen pointed out that the foundation may be headquartered in Sioux City but stressed that they are serving all diocesan schools. In addition to grants, FIRE has underwritten the cost of numerous professional development opportunities for all diocesan Catholic school educators and staff.
 
“We know we need to do whatever we can to expand our footprint on what we’re doing across the diocese. We are supporting schools all over and I think the ‘FIRE’ is spreading,” the president said. “We need to find ways to engage the donors in each of these communities as we are serving them.”
 
The organization’s leadership opted to begin with a friendraising event in Storm Lake with the assistance of St. Mary’s School. The Catholic school received a major grant from FIRE last month to assist with a paraprofessional’s salary and resource equipment to expand student support.
 
“They have tremendous leadership there – like so many other places in the diocese. They have a good track record of doing a lot with a little and being forced to be creative in doing so. They (have) unique and impactful ways to serve more students,” Allen said. “It seemed like a natural place to begin this work of trying to expand our donor base beyond Sioux City.”
 
Connecting with families, organizations, businesses and individuals in communities throughout northwest Iowa and sharing their story and mission is a goal for the foundation. The all-volunteer group was formed just five years ago. In that time, over $240,000 in grants has been awarded to Catholic schools to enhance efforts to serve students who have learning disabilities.
 
“We started in Sioux City with the first (event) at Marto’s. It was really a friendraiser where we were trying to build awareness from the ground up and that’s going to be our approach in these other communities as well,” Allen said. “The needs are expanding, the families who are being impacted … so we want to find where they are out there, connect with them and help us really expand inclusive education in all our schools.”
 
He added that inclusive education helps not just students with disabilities but the entire school community.
 
“It makes good sense from our own faith and spiritual beliefs but also makes good academic sense because we know that when classrooms are more inclusive, everybody benefits. Test scores go up and all the major indicators for academic performance go up for everybody,” Allen said.
 
To RSVP for the May 19 event in Storm Lake, email [email protected]. To learn more about the FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa, go to www.firefoundationnwiowa.org. As more events are planned, the foundation will share the details with Lumen Media.

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