Optimist Club awards grants to five teachers in Madison City Schools

MADISON – The Optimist Club has given a boost to classroom projects by awarding grants to five teachers in Madison City Schools.

At Columbia Elementary School, Julie Vandiver and Rachael Rohan received a grant for “Girls With Power. The Dollhouse Circuit Challenge.” With this project, girls who are STEM students design the structure and wire a dollhouse with working lights, doorbell, fans and other electronic features in a study of the basics of circuits.

After the students complete the dollhouse, they will showcase their project at the 2026 Girls Engaged in Math and Science or GEMS Expo at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in March 2026. The GEMS Expo enlivens lessons from the classroom into discovery moments in the real world.

In addition, Columbia received a grant to add a sensory swing in its sensory garden.

At Heritage Elementary School, Amber Moore received a grant to fund the “Wonders of the World” project. This initiative will boost the skills of English Language or EL students in science and English. Students will research and discover out-of-the-ordinary locations and their unique attributes and, on a larger scale, reference the Seven Wonders of the World.

Math teacher and mentor Mrinal Joshi accepted a grant to benefit the Math Team at Journey Middle School. Joshi will use the grant to help cover costs for math competitions for 70 team members in grades 6-8.

At Horizon Elementary School, STEM teacher Megan Gowan was awarded a grant for two projects – “Building Our Future” and “Tangible Coding.” In addition, the gifted program led by Jaclyn Hess benefitted with funds for “The Critical Thinking Kanoodle” bin project.

“The program was held at the Optimist Club office in Huntsville. MCS is grateful for the Optimist Club’s continuing support, as well as support from many other individual, group and company givers to MCS,” John Peck, MCS Manager of Public Relations, said.

In addition to the grants to Madison schools, Optimist Club also gave grants to a total of 33 STEM-related projects for more than $20,000 to Huntsville City Schools and Madison County Schools.