Making Awesome Happen, $1,000 At A Time 
How do we ensure Newmarket continues to be the best place to live and work in Canada? It starts with Awesome ideas. Enter the Awesome Foundation Newmarket, a group that provides monthly hassle-free micro grants to help bring those ideas to life.
Rather than a charity, the Awesome Foundation is like a giving circle. Ten trustees give $100 of their own money each month to help an individual or group implement a great idea that helps people locally. At the Awesome Foundation Newmarket, we focus on ideas that benefit youth in Newmarket.
We accept idea submissions from people of any age and with a variety of ideas. No idea is too small, and those that promote fun are as important as those with more serious focus. APPLY NOW
Winner!
Latest Awesome Foundation Newmarket Recipient: December 2018
When it comes to school, math is a subject some students don’t like or understand. Shanti Caswell, the new principal at Armitage Village P.S., is working hard to change that for her 469 students. “Unfortunately, our math scores over the past five years as measured by EQAO, the standardized Provincial assessment for reading, writing and mathematics, are low,” she says, adding that in Grade 6 only 26% of Armitage students met or exceeded the Provincial Standard this past spring. The school’s ‘Making Mathematics A Priority’ project is intended to address this achievement gap for all students at Armitage. “Math knowledge and understandings encompass so many life skills that students require now and throughout life,” Caswell says, adding this includes everything from working with money and telling time to making realistic estimates with numbers and materials, and so much more. The plan, she says, is to provide each classroom with a math cart containing a variety of manipulatives that are suggested for grade level according to the Ontario math curriculum. The school has already begun its fundraising efforts and, with the Awesome grant, is now more than halfway to its $5,000 target. “We know through academic and business research that mathematics skills and knowledge impacts future successes for individuals throughout their working careers and lives. Strong math skills are a key indicator for later success!”
L to R: Awesome trustees Tracy Macgregor Walter and Hollie Hoadley with winner Shanti Caswell and trustees Diane Farmer, Jackie Playter and Wasim Jarrah.
