Indian Creek Education Foundation levels up with executive director

Indian Creek Education Foundation has hired its first executive director.

The Indian Creek Education Foundation is a small nonprofit, made up solely of volunteers. The foundation has been helping teachers at Nineveh-Hensley-Jackson United School Corp. since 2011. Over the last five years, the foundation has grown in terms of its reach, the amount of dollars it brings in and the impact it has left on teachers and students, said Ashley Gregg, president.

Over the last three years, the foundation has put money aside to carve out a new role for an executive director, she said.

The position is currently contracted, but may eventually be a full-time salary position.

Hannah Abraham was named as the foundation’s first executive director. Abraham has deep ties to Indian Creek Schools, she said. Her children attend Indian Creek, she and her husband were high school sweethearts at Indian Creek and her parents are also alumni. When she saw the job opening for the position, she thought it would be an “amazing opportunity” to have an impact on the community, she said.

She hopes to be a point of contact for community members to be involved with the school system and provide communication of events and opportunities to get involved. Abraham looks forward to helping teachers bring their lessons to life through hands-on experiences and extra financial help.

“This was just another opportunity for me to have an impact on the school system and show support for the teachers and staff who give so much to our students day in and day out,” Abraham said.

Her goals as executive director include raising awareness for the foundation through community outreach, creating and building relationships with businesses in the school corporation and Johnson County and increasing fundraising opportunities to award additional teacher grants.

Last year, 74% of teachers and staff participated in the foundation’s staff-giving campaign. She hopes to bring in more fundraising money to help teachers with community and corporate support.

“It just shows the support that our teachers have for our school system and their students and their coworkers and then all of that money goes back into the schools via classroom grants or teacher travel grants,” Abraham said.

As a group of volunteers, strategic planning has not been a focus. The foundation now hopes to build a strategic plan and fundraising strategies with Abraham’s guidance.

With increased fundraising, the foundation will be able to do more for the community, Gregg said. Board members hope to bring in corporate donors, see an increase in their overall funds and see more volunteers supporting their cause, she said.

“With dollars and with hands, you can do twice as much,” Gregg said. “It’s not just giving financially, but it’s giving up your time to support and that’s what we’re lacking on. We hope to see more people engage with our organization so that we can do more work.”

Just one of the things the foundation provides is opportunities for teachers to travel and bring their experience back to the classroom through its “Passports to Passion” program. The foundation awards about $10,000 at the beginning of the school year for teachers to explore new learning opportunities and their passions outside of the classroom, Abraham said.

This year, the foundation is sending teacher to places including Nashville, Tenn. to attend a math conference, Costa Rica to learn about local turtles, California for a health and wellness seminar, Canada to follow the trail famously known in the book “Hatchet” and Germany for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

An opportunity for community members to get directly involved with the foundation is to participate in its upcoming trivia night at Dunn Farms, 5526 W State Road 135, Trafalgar. The trivia night is open to all ages and is $10 a person with four to eight people per team. Questions will include trivia like the gameshow Jeopardy as well as Indian Creek trivia questions.

Visit indiancreekschools.com/nhj-education-foundation for more volunteer and fundraising opportunities.