AAPS Science & Environmental Education Endowment Fund A Designated Fund of The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation

Thanks to community support, the Ann Arbor Public Schools provide outstanding science and environmental education field trips and hands-on, inquiry-based science programs for every student. Initiated in 1961 by Dr. William Stapp, these field trips and science activities permit students to have frequent personal, positive experiences with nature. However, these successful programs remain imperiled by financial challenges. Rising bus costs and shrinking school budgets threaten the future health of these opportunities.

What can we do? None of us wants to lose the hands-on field trips currently available every year. Hundreds of parents, volunteers, students, graduates and community members urged us to create a mechanism to provide perpetual funding for interactive science education. In response we started the AAPS Science & Environmental Education Endowment Fund (SEEE) within the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation. Because the Fund is endowed, every donation keeps contributing in perpetuity towards these specific educational field and enrichment programs. Our goal is to endow $5 million, which would help cover transportation, materials and staff costs for environmental field trips, planetarium visits and hands-on science enrichment activities in perpetuity. Our short-term goal is to assist with transportation costs for next year’s field trips. Every contribution is significant.

How can you help?

1.   Send a check or pledge to the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation for the AAPS Science & Environmental Education Endowment Fund (SEEE). Your gift will help keep our children in touch with nature and develop future environmental stewards FOREVER.

2.   Help us creatively build the endowment with matching corporate donations; directing your United Way paycheck deductions to SEEE endowment; or naming the endowment as a beneficiary in your will or estate plans.

3.   Suggest potential sponsors. We can invite interested donors to join a field trip and see first-hand the joys of sharing nature with children! Together we can preserve our outdoor and planetarium field trips and hands-on science programs by creating a lasting and independent trust that will support Science & Environmental Education today and for future generations.

Give Today!

Make your check payable to AAACF (The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation)
with a memo to SEEE (Science & Environmental Education Endowment)