Recent Events

Happy New Year!

We recently dropped by each building to surprise the winners of our 2023-24 Grant Program. Applications were submitted before Thanksgiving break and our big "Publisher's Clearing House" check was in full effect to announce awards.

Winners are:

Elementary School

Margie Emery "Color Printers & Toner"

Tina Cox "Lighting Covers & Flexible Seating"

Joy Beeler "Minds in Motion Resources"

Lisa Windsor "MO Show Me Nominee Books"

Stephanie Grindstaff "Lighting & Document Camera"

Jessica Brotherton "Outdoor Learning Space"

Courtney Coen "Flexible Seating

Middle School

Jamminy McCrosky & Ethan Meeks  "Turning Physical Education Around Through Technology"

Lacy Moore "Hydroponic Growing System"

Wendy Williams "Alternative Seating"

Jeremy Fielder "The Princess Bride Class Set"

Kaitlen Kelley "Classroom Management Supplies"

Sara Long "Classroom Supplies"

High School

Amber Dotson "Color Printer for Student Projects"

Total Awarded: $9,918.93

It's an honor to support the staff of the school district! If you are interested in joining us or assisting in this mission, please reach out!

Date: Sept. 21, 2023

Subject: Cabool Education Foundation meets CFO Endowment Match Challenge

Contact: Aaron Scott, ascott@cfozarks.org; 417-864-6199 

Cabool Education Foundation successfully completed the special 50th anniversary Endowment Match Challenge set by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks. CEF, an agency partner of the CFO and the Cabool Community Foundation, raised $15,000 between July 15 and Aug. 15, and earned a $10,000 matching grant from the CFO for its Teacher Grant Endowment Fund.

CEF was among ten nonprofits, serving communities from Joplin to Cape Girardeau, to succeed in their fundraising efforts. More than $250,000 is now permanently endowed for the perpetual benefit of these agencies:

• Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks 

• Cabool Education Foundation

• Cape Girardeau Public Schools Foundation 

• Care to Learn

• Christos House Inc.

• Jasper County CASA

• Ozark Greenways 

• Springfield Dream Center

• Springfield Sister Cities Association

• Watershed (formerly Watershed Committee of the Ozarks)

The challenge grants were presented during the CFO’s Agency Partner Appreciation Luncheon on Sept. 19 at the White River Conference Center in Springfield. In a keynote address, C.J. Huff, former superintendent of Joplin School District, drew from his experiences in disaster recovery to offer advice for nonprofit leaders facing burnout and stress. Both the challenge grants and the luncheon were part of the CFO’s 50th anniversary celebration and exemplify the foundation’s work to strengthen local nonprofits.

“It takes a wise leader to build an endowment now for needs in the future,” said Bridget Dierks, vice president of programs for the CFO. “Even after we are gone, these endowments will continue to provide meaningful impact to our communities.”

Through the CFO’s Agency Partner program, more than 700 nonprofits across central and southern Missouri have established funds with the CFO. In addition to fund management, the CFO provides its agency partners with a range of services including staff training, administrative support, networking opportunities, and leadership and board development. 

How Endowments Work

• Gifts to an endowment are permanently protected.

• The endowment is invested and managed for growth. Historically, the CFO’s investments grow about 7% annually, but are subject to market fluctuations.

• Each year, a percentage of the endowment — currently 4% — is available for the agency to use as needed. The agency can use that money or keep it invested.

• As the endowment grows, the amount made available each year grows as well.

Founded in 1973, the Community Foundation of the Ozarks is marking its 50th anniversary in 2023 as the region’s largest public charitable foundation serving a network of donors, 54 regional affiliate foundations — including the Cabool Community Foundation — and nonprofit partners across central and southern Missouri through its mission of resource development, community grantmaking, collaboration and public leadership.

Community Foundation of the Ozarks

P.O. Box 8960
Springfield, MO, 65801
(417) 864-6199
Fax (417) 864-8344
cfozarks.org

We love to partner with Mrs. Appleton and her FFA kids to improve the look of the school district campuses. 

This year was special because it involved some very eager 4th graders who were proud to help. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We love going back to school in January, because that means it is time to surprise some very deserving individuals by announcing CEF Grant Program winners!

This grant round, we were able to FULLY FUND EVERY APPLICATION! We know the chances of that happening every year are slim, but we are extremely grateful that were able to do so during this especially unusual school year. 

Please help us congratulate these educators at Cabool R-IV Schools!

Elementary School:

Tiffany Mooney - "Social Emotional Learning"

Abby Warneke - "Measured Mom Plus Membership"

Sheena Jackson - "Promoting Literacy through PAT"

Elaine Rhodes - "Solar Cars"

Jillian Matherly - "Pre-K Fundamentals"

Rebecca Smotherman - "Osmo Learning System for ECE"

Middle School:

Nathan Christeson - "Weather Vacuum Chamber"

High School:

William Schoelles - "Intro to Digital Photography"

Juliet VonAllmen - "Promoting Literacy through PAT"

If you are interested in donating to help support classroom grants, scholarships, facilities, or any other area of the school district--please reach out to us! We are a 501(c)3 accepting monetary donations or items in-kind as tax deductible gifts.

Photos include our winners along with CEF Board Members: Kevin Clary, Sarah Honeycutt, Stacy Matherly, Brad Miller, and Brittany Whetstine.

The annual Cabool Education Foundation golf tournament last Saturday was a success! A total of 28 teams registered in advance for the two-person scramble, and despite an hour long rain delay, 26 teams completed the 18-hole format.

Shotgun start was at 8:30am with opportunities for hole-in-one prizes at three different holes, one prize being $25,000! There were some valiant efforts but unfortunately, none successful.

Congrats to our winners!

Championship Flight:

1st Place - Dustin Hunter & Doug Cook

2nd Place - Denna Tune & Roger Tune

3rd Place - Bill Lake & Jon Stephens

A Flight:

1st Place - John Cook & Terry Matherly

2nd Place - Terry Noirfalise & Jack Noirfalise

3rd Place - Steve Hawkins & Mike Medwid

B Flight:

1st Place - Scott Tucker & Josh Pruett

2nd Place - Dusty Rollins & Cody Aycock

3rd Place - Jonathan Page & Shawn Wilson

Closest to the Pin-Hole #2:

Winner - Brad Eidson

Runner Up - Kevin Clark

Closest to the Pin-Hole #5:

Winner - Drew Honeycutt

Runner Up - Roger Tune

Closest to the Pin-Hole #7:

Winner - Terry Noirfalise

Runner Up - Brad Eidson

Longest Drive-#1:

Winner - Ted Noirfalise

An American Rebel 15 Gun Safe was donated by Brad Miller of R&S Rare Coins in Cabool. All hole sponsors and players were entered into a drawing with the lucky winner being Evan Williams.

The finale of the event was a 50/50 Cash Ball Drop with the help of Stacy Monter from the City of Cabool Electric Department. The CEF Board sold numbered golf balls in the weeks leading up to, as well as the day of the tournament. Grand total of the pot was $2,420 with half going to the person whose ball landed closest to the pin after falling from a bucket 60ft above. The winner of this raffle was Paul Bajier. Following the tournament, Paul very generously donated his winnings to CEF. Check out the footage of this exciting moment posted to our FB page!

Great food, many laughs, and a lot of fun was had by all. The tournament raised $4,700+ and every dollar will be given as scholarships to the graduating seniors of Cabool High School. The CEF Board extends our sincere gratitude to all who contributed and helped make the event a success. A huge thank you to Tammy Carman, Jordan Gettys, John Cook, Wil Matherly, Steve Matherly, Donna Jones, and Stacy Monter for giving up their Saturday to assist us. We plan to come back bigger and better in 2021, and hope to see you all next year!

The CEF Golf Tournament would not have been possible without our hole sponsors. Signs were placed at the tee boxes around the course with their names, but we also hope that their generosity toward our organization and support of the school will help to earn your respect and future business:

Missouri Gun Co

Benjamin Brew

Dotson Excavating

River Rock Redi-Mix

American Family Insurance-Wells Agency

Western Dairy Transport

WD Logistics

Cabool Lease, Inc.

El Imperial

Williams Cattle Company

Cabool Kountry Meats

Cabool Florist at Missy Faye's

Keller Williams Southern MO Realty

Cabool Tires

Cabool Home Center

People's Community Bank

Doug & Donna Jones

Hiett Land Title LLC

Randal Jarrett Trucking, Inc.

Tucker Sandblasting

Perry Family Vision

Southern Missouri Accounting LLC

The Gas Station

Douglass Steel

Pryor Family Dental-Nick Merica

USA Mortgage-Bobby Otwell

Hawkins Home & Lawn

Kuster Logging

Whetstine Excavating

Dairy Queen of Cabool

Walker Parts & Service Center

Cabool Medical Clinic-Steve Hawkins

THANK YOU!

Check out the CEF Facebook page for lots more photos!

Hello 2020!

New year surprises are exciting, but awarding well-deserved grant money to the educators at Cabool Schools is also an honor and a privilege. Today, we surprised the winners of the 2019 CEF Grant Program. Applications were accepted through Thanksgiving break, with announcement made the "Publisher's Clearing House way" first thing this morning. This was only possible because people in our community care. We thank and appreciate our donors more than words can say. We also thank the administration for allowing and helping us carry out these shenanigans. No cow bells this year, but it was still a lot of fun!

We took a couple minutes in each class to explain to the students what all the ruckus was about: their teachers have big ideas, their teachers want the best for each and every one of their students, their teachers took the time and effort to ask, and because of those efforts.....we celebrated them with lots of clapping and cheering today!

Unfortunately, there were also requests that we could not fulfill. If you would like to help in any way, monetarily or via in-kind donations, please reach out to us!

Congratulations to our 2019 Grant Program Winners:

Elaine Rhodes "Every Voice Matters" - $200.00

Joy Beeler "Responsive Services Resources" - $214.50

Tiffany Mooney "Brighten the Lightbulbs for Students" - $150.00

Katie Presser "Elementary Music Needs more Orff" - $422.00

Nathan Christeson "NearPod Annual Fee" - $120.00

Jeremy Fielder "Cordless Mice for Chromebooks" - $350.00

Madison Ortega "Interactive Learning through iPads" - $587.00

Dwayne Wood "TV Monitor for Visual Learning" - $250.00

We really have the best educators at Cabool Schools. More updates continue to come in as grant money is used. 

All the thanks goes to generous donors who provide the dollars that make grants possible!

Mr. Christeson - MS Science 

Another thank you to Cabool Education Foundation for the generous $100 grant from the back to school meetings in August. Mr. Christeson used his funds to purchase 3D Cell Models to help students better understand cellular processes and cell organelles. The students were extremely excited to use them as a learning and study tool! Thank you, CEF! 

Updates are starting to come in from our educators who received grant money as the school year began.

Madie Ortega was one of the recipients of the Cabool Education Foundation Kickoff Grants. Mrs. Ortega used her funds to purchase hands on manipulatives and educational games to be used in the middle school classroom she is assisting. 

Mrs. Pearson (1st Grade) also sent us a thank you with info on her her grant was spent:

Thank you so much for the $100.00 to spend for my classroom!  I was able to purchase 2 portable CD players, 2 portable lap desks and a privacy screen for testing.

Thank you!

Mrs. Pearson

And we're off!

The 2019-2020 school year is underway and the Cabool Education Foundation was honored to have a small part in welcoming staff back on Monday, August 12th.

NINE $100 kickoff grants were drawn at random--the lucky winners being:

Becky Pearson

Lynn Stringer

Nate Christeson

LeAnn Dobson

Madison Ortega

Elizabeth Stone

Nikki Bennett

Ginger Sneiderman

Misty Wake

We can't wait to see how these funds are used to enrich the educational experience for the students at Cabool Schools.

None of this would be possible without donations from supporters of the district. Thank you to everyone who gladly gives back to our community. Every dollar is appreciated!

A few good people got together for an hour-and-a-half and did something really nice last night! #BulldogPride #GivingBack 

Cabool Education Foundation - CEF has now landscaped at each of the schools. Whatta' difference it has made! CHS received a grant from Lowe's to fix up up the Commons area (between A and B Buildings) but ran short on funds to finish a few areas. We found some perfect cherry trees on an end of Summer sale and made great things happen last weekend! Now, all buildings are spiffed up to welcome our kids back to a new year! If you'd like to donate to Cabool Education Foundation, it is a 501c3 and every penny will go to the school while you get a deduction on your taxes! You can designate which account you'd like to support! Some alum have dedicated to monthly e-transfer/donations! Please "Like" our CEF Facebook page so you can follow all the progress! Together, we can make great things happen! 

We cannot say thank you enough to all the participants, volunteers, and hole sponsors for the CEF/Alumni Golf Tournament held at Wedgewood on Saturday, June 15th.

A rainy, windy morning turned to lovely golf weather and we are very happy to say that almost $4,000 worth of scholarship money was raised to be split between our organizations!

We had a great group of golfers and appreciate everyone who spent their morning playing 18 holes to benefit CHS graduates.

Winners were:

Championship Flight

1st Place-Jeremy Haynes & Carl Tune

2nd Place-Steve Slick & Bo Jackson

3rd Place-Shawn Argabright & Matthew Price

A Flight

1st Place-Jody Jarrett & Ted Noirfalise

2nd Place-Kevin Clary & John Hines

3rd Place-Rance Beller & Shane Patterson

Winner of the Centurion 18 Gun Safe donated by R&S Rare Coins was Chris Jackson.

More pictures are available, feel free to message us!

------------------------------

Hole Sponsors:

Cabool Home Center

El Imperial

The Gas Station

Missouri Gun Co

A Diesel Shop

Holmes Family Farms

Cabool Lease Inc

Cabool Development Foundation

Ralph Baker/Ozark Home Repairs

Class of 2012

Drew & Sarah Honeycutt

Doug & Donna Jones

The Clyde Matherly Family

Kabul Nursing Home

Class of 1970

Class of 1976

Class of 1964

Cabool Tires

People's Community Bank

Landmark Bank

Jim Bukowsky/Smart Money Innovations

People's Community Bank

Dotson Excavating

Western Dairy Transport

WD Logistics

Ozark Driving Institute LLC

Walker Bumper to Bumper

Sari Wright

Dr. Jim Perry

Missouri Ozarks Community Healthcare

Twin Oaks Custom Cabinets

Class of 1969

Hawkins Home & Lawn

Wehr Ford

Club 60

Earl A Wood, State Farm Ins

Class of 1974

Hiett Land & Title

A BIG thank you to every player, volunteer, sponsor, and all who helped make this event happen!

On Friday, March 29th CEF board members Stacy Matherly and Sarah Honeycutt attended the Community Foundation of the Ozarks Matching Grant presentation in Springfield.  

It's an honor to be 1 of 12 agencies in Southwest Missouri to be selected for this opportunity, and a proud moment for our group to earn the $5,000 match toward an endowment dedicated to our educators at Cabool Schools. There are many great things to come in our future!

Thanks again to Mrs. Appleton's 8th graders who worked hard today to get the Elementary looking fantastic!

Mrs. Appleton's 8th grade Exploring Agriculture class made a big contribution to their school building this morning.

Weeds were pulled, sticks were gathered, then leaves were raked and bagged. The finale was new mulch to cover the driveway triangle and both sides of the entry that the high school classes helped us plant last Fall.

Thank you for your hard work!

The Cabool Education Foundation is periodically presented with needs of the school district outside our normal scope and objectives. Other requests, we are just unable to fulfill at that moment in time. We hope to continuously grow and strengthen endowment funds that will allow us to grant all requests sent our way. 

To aid in our mission, we have decided to create a "Friends of the Foundation" for persons interested in assisting our school. Assistance may be in the form of helping with upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, knowledge/advice needed, raising awareness, or monetary donations for specific items/trips. We would love to fulfill every need, as our goal is to support the Cabool R-IV School District in every way possible. Sometimes, that can be done by simply networking resources or giving your time. 

To join Friends of the Foundation, please use this form to submit your contact info. You will be notified when an opportunity arises to help. 

We appreciate your support and willingness to work together for the benefit of our school! 

ATTENTION students and families of the Class of 2019!

CEF has made a scholarship available to a graduating CHS senior and applications are due on April 1st.

It doesn't matter where you are headed after graduation: college, trade school, or straight to a dream job. All applicants are welcome!

Please stop by the High School counselor's office to get an application.

Your Cabool Education Foundation (CEF) is very excited to share that we met our $10,000 goal for the February challenge granted to us by Community Foundation of the Ozarks. For this, we will be rewarded with a $5,000 gift of matching funds! The $15,000 will become a Teacher Endowment Fund to grow for many, many years all to benefit our Cabool Teacher’s efforts in their classrooms. Dividends and interest earned from these funds will be made into annual grants for our Cabool teachers to utilize in their classrooms via an application process.

Lots of good questions and discoveries of what CEF is and provides came from the many conversations had during the month of February. Cabool donors and faculty & staff learned of the benefits of using our not-for-profit, CEF as a 501c3 tax shelter and more people learned just how we are here to help our school district do great things!

In our 13 months of existence, we have been able to successfully establish two perpetual Endowment Funds, award a handful of teacher classroom grants, complete landscape projects at the Cabool Elementary and Middle Schools, and we are looking forward to awarding a student scholarship in May!

Would you be interested in being a part of the CEF? We are periodically presented with needs of the school district outside our normal scope and objectives; including but not limited to, helping with upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, or sharing your knowledge or advice with us.  If you would be interested in being informed when these opportunities arise, please contact a CEF Board member.

Thank you, Cabool, for your continued support of one of the biggest industries in our community, our Cabool Schools.

Stacy Matherly, President

Cabool Education Foundation

You may have seen staff or faculty wearing these CEF shirts at school and around town. A huge thank you goes out to school administration who agreed to allow employees to wear the shirt with jeans on the first and last Mondays of every month!

The profit from each shirt purchased goes into the Teacher Grant Fund and will end up back in the pocket of an educator at Cabool Schools. Thank you for all the support!

Great news!! We are preparing to put long term grant abilities in place.

In the month of February, CEF will be working hard to raise $10,000 to create an endowment for our faculty and staff. This matching grant that we have been chosen for means the Community Foundation of the Ozarks will add $5,000 to our total, creating a $15,000 endowment that strictly supports the Teacher Grant Fund! Our goal is $10,000 but we would be thrilled to surpass that. Every year, the endowment will produce returns that are distributed to our grant applicants.

If you have been looking for a way to make a tax deductible donation that will continue to give, year-after-year, or know someone who would be interested--please contact us!!

The following article is taken from the Cabool Enterprise-January 31, 2019 Volume 135, Issue 16

Congrats to the 2018 CEF Grant Program winners!

--Jodi Darter (Kindergarten) "Hands-On Learning Fun!" - $436.82

--Alysha Dotson (MS Computer Lab) "3D Printer Supplies" - $213.99

--William Schoelles (HS Art) "Slab Roller for Art Program" - $969.00

Total: $1619.81

As official cheerleaders for our Cabool School District, we REALLY wanted to give every applicant what they asked for in every grant request. In December, we met for a few hours and poured over each application to help us determine the winning recipients. It happens that, this year, there is a recipient from each building. It won’t always be this way but as the Cabool Education Foundation grows and the donations grow, we HOPE to offer more dollars of grant money, just like this!

We had a lot of fun surprising our winners on the first day of classes after Christmas break. A big THANK YOU to the generous donors who made it possible for us to fulfill 3 requests this round. It is clear that we have a very committed, loving, and hard-working group of professionals at Cabool Schools and we look forward to supporting them in every possible way.

Middle School landscaping is complete! 

The driveway triangle will no longer need to be mowed and the entrance to the building should look very full and pretty in a couple years. A little paint and a lot of stain refreshed our beloved wooden planter that is decades old, and a simple coat of paint at the baseball field really made a difference for the Forsythe sign.  Weather permitting, a few more touch ups will finish the paint/stain projects. 

All of these visual improvements are great, but even better is the impact on the teenagers that helped make it happen. To hear them take pride in their work, learn a thing or two about planting, and realize that a little initiative goes a long way makes all the time and effort spent well worth it. We hope they know that as an individual or with a group, they have the ability to make a difference!

Thank you to Mrs. Manning for providing transportation, and to Mrs. Appleton for allowing this partnership. We appreciate the Ag students and thank them for their hard work!

Audrey McCarty - 5th/6th Grade Science

 At the middle school, Mrs. McCarty used her grant funds to create STEM Kits for her classes. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.  STEM education creates critical thinkers, increases literacy in many subjects, and enables the next generation of innovators.  This new activity center for 5th and 6th grade students is currently being used as enrichment for early finishers. 

Great idea, Mrs. McCarty! This is sure to make a lot of students more excited to learn!

Today was a good, productive day. The landscaping project at the Elementary is finished! 

We want the exterior of our schools to help brighten moods, and not look dilapidated or sad. CEF worked with school administration to design a plan for the flower beds and flagpole of the Elementary. Through coordinated efforts, many labor hours were spent on a face-lift.  We hope this visual improvement will create positive feelings for the teachers, students, and visitors of this building for many years to come. 

So many kind and generous people/groups contributed to this project. A HUGE thank you to: Cabool Elementary PTO, Texas County Master Gardeners, Leslie Appleton & her Ag students, and the Maintenance Dept at Cabool R-IV Schools.

Please see photos from start to completion. 

Next up......the Middle School!

The amount of money our educators spend out-of-pocket is incredible. It's all because they want to enhance the learning experience for their students. Sure, parents get a school supply list and are asked to provide notebooks, folders, writing utensils, etc., and without those items, learning would not be possible. The goal is for EVERY student to succeed. Additional materials are necessary for that to happen. Funding to school districts seems to always be decreasing. Therefore, our teachers do the best they can with resources available. We want to give as much grant money as we possibly can to them.  Generous donors make that a reality. 

CEF has set a Thanksgiving deadline for teachers to submit applications to the newly created Cabool Education Foundation Grant Program. We would love to award grants twice a year via this formal application process. Aside from the 9 lucky winners of our school kickoff that we post updates about, our very first grants awarded through the program will be announced immediately following Christmas break. 

We look forward to that day!

Updates are starting to come in and we can't wait to share them!

On Monday, August 13th, 2018, the Cabool Education Foundation met with the faculty and staff of the district to kick off the new school year. It was an awesome opportunity to introduce ourselves, explain our purpose and goals, and to also inform them of our CEF Grant Program that we will strive to maintain each year. Teachers can apply for grant money thanks to generous donors to our Teacher Grant Fund. We hope to approve as many requests as possible! First round applications are due by Thanksgiving break, with awards announced immediately following the Christmas holiday. The most exciting part came at the end of our presentation when we SURPRISED everyone by issuing three $200 grants per school building! Tickets were handout out during breakfast (before we got started) and all were asked to place the other half of their stub in a bin labeled with the school building they primarily worked in. We are so thankful that donors have chosen to support our school system and look forward to the opportunity to do this again. 

Winners included

Elementary School: Becky Pearson - 1st Grade, Misty Wake - Elementary Paraprofessional, Laurie Hasemeier - Kindergarten 

Middle School: Dennis Brown - 7th/8th Social Studies, Audrey McCarty - 5th/6th Science, Trina Morgan - MS Librarian 

High School: Logan Bell - English, Jeremy Miller - Science, Brian Thiele - Science 

And the winner of a set of multi purpose bins was Anna Woods - MS Music/Band. 

Shown below presenting Grant Certificates to the winners are Brad Miller & Kirby Holmes. Stacy Matherly is pictured with Anna Woods.