Children’s School gets $250,000 matching grant for Nelson program

The Children’s School has received a matching gift grant to support its new Nelson Middle Years program, school officials announced last week.

The gift from the C and M Nelson Foundation will annually match at least $250,000 in charitable contributions made to any of the school’s operating and capital fundraising efforts. The matching funds will support the facilities, programs, and personnel that benefit the Nelson Middle Years Program.

“Our family foundation supports our country’s greatest resource: children. The Children’s School and its Nelson Middle Years program excel in keeping pace with our technologically fluid world,” Terri Nelson, parent of a student and and a foundation trustee,” stated in a press release.

“But, more importantly, the school elicits and nurtures those qualities that contribute to a well-rounded and successful future: inquisitiveness, ‘out of the box’ thinking, confidence, mutual respect, commitment.”

This gift is the latest in a series of fundraising milestones reached by The Children’s School, the release noted. Last month, the school’s Annual Fund program reached 100 percent participation from its families for the first time in school history. The faculty and staff also reached full participation participation.

In Spring 2009, the school raised roughly $2 million to launch the Nelson Middle Years program and to upgrade the physical plant of its Early Childhood program facilities.