Celebrating its partnership with local schools, the California Credit Union announced $1,500 in awards to Wendy Shaner of Canyon Springs Elementary; Michael Mansfield of Bowman High School; and Janie Prucha of Golden Valley High School.

“We’re trying to give back to our membership,” said Jason Pugh, VP of business development for Californai Credit Union. “We had a lot of our membership asking if we could support an education initiative.”

The students of Canyon Springs Elementary will benefit from the grant with the purchase of an iPad to increase reading comprehension for students with mild to moderate disabilities. The grant for Bowman High School will support at risk students by publishing their own poetry and arts anthology. Golden Valley High School will be using the funds to support the theater class performances to local elementary schools.

The credit union offers 10 grants in November and 10 more in the fall, according to Pugh.

“We want to give teachers who have creative idea an outlet to explore those ideas,” Pugh said.

The grants are intended to serve as many students as possible, he added. He said the credit union also wants to make the application process as simple as possible, so it’s a 1-page application that mayu be found at their website: CaliforniaCU.org.

“We have a committee that reviews every single application,” Pugh said. “We look for creativity,  we look for need and we look for applications that will reach the most students and have the most impact.”