The Tamaqua Blue Raider Foundation held its eighth annual update event at the Station Restaurant in Tamaqua on Monday night. The evening opened with remarks from the foundation's president, Bob Miller, and vocal performances from Hannah Betz and George Hegedus, Tamaqua Area High School students.

Miller said over the life span of the 501c3 charitable organization,, the group has raised more than $175,000.That money is used to fund projects that are "outside of the school district's budget." The program has helped provide guest speakers, Penn State AG lab visits, field trips, libraries, summer camps, AP courses and visiting artists.One of the most prominent programs sponsored by the foundation are the teacher grants that are available to teachers in the Tamaqua Area School District.Miller said in order for a grant project to be considered, it must be focused on education and must benefit as many students as possible.The grant applications are first filtered through the principals at each level, and then through the district superintendent, before they are passed on to the foundation for final consideration.This year, the foundation awarded nine teacher grants, totaling $17,103. The awards were presented to: Jolene Barron and Zachery Evans, Tamaqua elementary, for "Learning with Legos: We Do Stem"; Roseann Weinrich, Tamaqua high school, for the Chincoteague Bay field station marine biology experience; Susan Featro and Michelle Argust, Tamaqua elementary, junior and high school, for ESL students at the Tamaqua Community Art Center.Also, Jim McCabe, Tamaqua high school, for mobile technology; Audra Schlecht and Marta Monk, West Penn Elementary, for alternative seating; Amanda Peters, LeeAnn Matteo, Kristen Tubbs and Julia Schoff, West Penn Elementary, for expanding students' community skills through community-based instruction trips; Gina Manbeck, Tamaqua Elementary, for response to instruction and intervention effectiveness; Angela Faust, Tamaqua elementary, for innovations with iPads; and Dylan Peters, Tamaqua elementary, for building community with coding.Arranged throughout the venue were displays representing last year's awards. Students Brady McCabe and Luke Frohnheiser demonstrated coding and building with Legos. Barron, a previous and current recipient of the foundation's grants, said she and Evans have been building on the program every year."First we bought the Lego kits, then we added the coding and laptops. Last year, we added the iPads, which make the program more flexible and easy to use," she said. The program, which has 20 participants, is an after-school one for third-graders at the Tamaqua elementary."When 5 p.m. comes, and it's time to leave, they all groan because they don't want to go," Barron said.Frohnheiser and McCabe were both enthusiastic about the program, elaborating on the building and coding skills they had learned. "This really helps our building skills," McCabe said. "Someday, if we want to become engineers, this will really help us."The foundation has held many successful fundraisers throughout the year and looks to continue expanding the help they can provide for students and teachers in the Tamaqua Area School District."Anything we can do that will give these kids an advantage," Miller said.