The Ohio Valley River Elks were awarded a combined two grants totalling $5,500 from the Elks National Foundation and donated it to Bellaire Local Schools and the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center’s After Hours Academy (AHA) Cooking Club. The AHA is funded through a 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant.The cooking club students worked side by side with Elks members on October 27 to cook dinner before the presentation of the grants at Bellaire Middle School. They worked on a wide variety of tasks such as cutting vegetables for a salad and applying sauce to french bread for individual pizzas, while others shaped cookie dough for dessert and set the tables. 

“One of the positive side effects of doing something like this is we are getting our students tied to our community and our community tied to the kids,” said Superintendent Derrick McAfee, Bellaire Local Schools.

A $4,500 grant was donated to Bellaire Local School’s “Blessings in a Backpack” program which supplies students with healthy food to take home over the weekend. The Elks club will also help the school stuff the backpacks. 

“The kids are delightful,” said Elks ENF Lodge Chairperson Mary Carolyn Nichelson, Ohio Valley River Elks.“I enjoy helping out. The gratitude of the people who receive our grants is always overwhelming. We appreciate that, too. Our lodge members are very proud of the work we do.”

A $1,000 grant was donated to the AHA cooking club which is made up of students grades k-12. The money donated from the Elks will go toward the purchase of food for the club. 

“One of my favorite parts of the afterschool program is the night that we cook. We teach the students how to make meals that they can prepare at home,” said Curriculum Director Kellie Cusick, Bellaire Local Schools. “We look at nutrition facts, we look at cost facts, we prepare them, and then we all sit down for a family meal which is our favorite part.”

There are around 88 students that normally attend the AHA program at Bellaire after their traditional school day.