Golden Apple Awards Teachers $60,000 in Grant Funding

Golden Apple Foundation of Rockford’s mission is to recognize teachers and empower them with classroom resources to improve educational outcomes in our community. We know that sometimes school budgets only go so far and we want to help teachers provide great educational experiences for their students. This may mean ensuring that each student has access to a working calculator or individual copies of a book for a class unit or providing coding robots or 3D printers for them to learn advanced STEM skills! On Tuesday, we held a reception at the lovely Anderson Japanese Gardens for the 70 teachers awarded grant money through our 2025 classroom grants program. Our program has greatly expanded through the years: in 2014, we awarded $5,588 to 8 teachers. In 2019, we awarded $14,000 to 7 teachers. Since then, we’ve gained more sponsors including Collins Aerospace which joined our efforts to equip area students with resources to spur their interest and abilities in STEM work and The Blazer Foundation which focuses on social/emotional and mental health needs. These sponsors, along with Meg and Rob Hodge — supporters for 17 years — the Jack Baumann Memorial and our Golden Apple Teacher Academy help us make an even greater difference in our area schools as we were able to fund nearly $60,000 in grant requests this year. Thank you to all our sponsors and all who helped read and evaluate the record-breaking number of grant applications submitted. Kudos to these teachers who think outside the box to deliver excellent education to the students in Boone and Winnebago county schools. It is our honor to be part of what you do.

Here is the list of the 2025 Grant Recipients: Grants Awarded for 2024-2025