BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Bradford County Education Foundation President Cheryl Canova was presented with the Jim McKenzie Consortium Champion Award in recognition of her engagement with the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations.
Canova received the award at the ConnectED conference that was held this past September in Orlando.
“It was a surprise and an honor to be the person who was recognized for the state of Florida for my leadership with our foundation, especially since we are a small county, and we are all volunteers,” Canova said.
The Jim McKenzie Consortium Champion Award is presented annually to a local education foundation leader who exemplifies the consortium’s values of collaboration, connection, leadership and excellence.
“We know how tirelessly our local education foundation leaders work to lead their own organization, so when they also commit themselves to growth and engage with their peers it is particularly meaningful,” Consortium of Education Foundations President Mary Chance said.
Canova, the former director of the Santa Fe College Andrews Center, was nominated for her consistent engagement with the consortium over many years. She has tapped into new resources and funding offered by the consortium to help Bradford County students and teachers and eagerly shares what the Bradford County Education Foundation is doing with colleagues across the state.
Bradford is one of six counties that have all-volunteer education foundations.
“Since I retired from Santa Fe four years ago, I have had more time to volunteer for the foundation,” Canova said.
The Bradford County Education Foundation was created in 1990. Some of its recent accomplishments are raising $100,000 through hosting World Reading Initiative events and obtaining a $500,000 resiliency grant.
At the BCEF’s Aug. 29 Leave a Legacy event, Bradford Superintendent of Schools Will Hartley said, “I can’t say enough about the education foundation and all the work that they do. They do an amazing job.”
The foundation hosts the welcome-back reception for school staff prior to the start of every school year as well as the annual reception for Teacher of the Year and School-Related Employee of the Year. BCEF also provides the Teacher/School-Related Employee of the Year awards.
BCEF sponsors the school- and district-level spelling bees and provides awards. It also sponsors the district winner moving on to the state level.
Bradford High School’s annual Golden B/Principal’s Achievement ceremony is sponsored by BCEF, which also provides the awards and sponsors the post-ceremony reception.
These are just a few examples of what BCEF is doing to support schools.
“We have a good group of volunteers,” said Canova, who gave special kudos to Lila Sellars, who has been BCEF vice president for more than 15 years.
Besides Canova, Sellars and Hartley, BCEF board members are Angel Autry, Christina Cornwell, Sheryl Dixon, Brenda Donaldson, Matt Dyal, Lisa Gault, Vorease Jones, Sarah Long, Paula Register, Leisa Sims, Chrissy Thompson, Brenda Thornton, Eugenia Whitehead and Emeritus John Miller.
If you’d like to know more about BCEF, visit bceducationfoundation.org. You can also follow the “Bradford County Education Foundation” Facebook page.
