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Friday, March 29, 2024

Local school gets flotilla donation

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Because of a new charity element to the North Carolina Holiday Flotilla sponsorships, the 2015 festival raised $5,400 to benefit one of Wilmington’s low-income schools, D.C. Virgo Preparatory Academy. Flotilla committee members recently visited the students to present the check and learn about the program the money will benefit.

The flotilla’s 2015 donation, like the 2014 donation, will go toward Virgo’s science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum. Virgo is a federally designated Title 1 school, serving a large low-income student population.

The 2014 donation helped the school purchase a three-dimensional printer and other equipment to expand the school’s STEM lab, a classroom environment — created in 2013 — where the students can work in teams to create hands-on engineering and robotics projects.

Several members of the flotilla committee presented the 2015 donation earlier this year. They also had the opportunity to speak with the students and learn about their current STEM project: building and programming robots. The flotilla members were impressed.

“The children are so positive and so focused,” said Jane Martin, flotilla committee member and director of marketing at Castle Branch, one of the flotilla’s biggest sponsors. “Frankly, the children know a lot more than most of us do about STEM.”

Committee member Linda Brown agreed, saying some of the students’ STEM work “was over my head” but adding that it was amazing to see the projects. She was impressed when one sixth-grader told her he wanted to be a biochemical engineer when he grew up.

This year’s donation will likely help inspire other young students to set career goals in the STEM field. Martin said part of the money would allow the school to send the students to visit local businesses to see what types of STEM jobs exist.

In a press release, Virgo’s principal, Eric Irizarry, emphasized the importance of the flotilla’s donation.

“Making the transformation to a STEM-focused school requires a substantial infusion of the time and financial support to facilitate purchases relating to STEM equipment, focused teachers’ STEM training and incremental student exposure outside the classroom, among other items. We deeply appreciate the Flotilla’s support,” he stated.

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