FUNDING STUDENT SUCCESS

Since the Pete Grimes “Just Do It” Endowment was established at the Bexley Education Foundation in 2005 by Beth Grimes-Flood and sons, Bill, BHS ’89 and Michael, BHS ‘98, it has served as a valuable source of funding for student leadership development and exploration programs. The fund supported the Leadership Bexley program for many years and more recently the Freshman Focus program and the Global Scholars Program at the high school.
 
Now, the fund is poised to have even more impact. Recently renamed the Grimes Family Student Success Fund, the fund will support an expanded number of learning experiences and activities that encourage personal growth, creativity and curiosity and build upon individual strengths. The first program funded by the renamed fund was a poetry event held on April 1 at the high school with local poets Cynthia Amoah and Ajanae Dawkins, educator and poet Peter Kahn and acclaimed British writer Roger Robinson, winner of the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize.  

Approximately 100 students participated in interactive writing workshops held throughout the day.  Several students then participated in a culminating event called, 
Portable Paradise:  An International/Intercultural/Intergenerational Poetry Celebration on Friday, April 5 that featured readings by high school and college students from Bexley, Columbus Academy, Otterbein University, Denison University and The Ohio State University.