HOUGHTON LAKE — A first grade teacher who applied for years has received a $5,000 grant from the Meemic Foundation to buy new classroom furniture.
The grant went to teacher Leslie Greer for brand new furniture. Greer said she had submitted Meemic Foundation grant applications for years without winning and assumed if she ever did, it would be for something small, not $5,000.
Greer won the grant in September and said she was told to keep it a secret. She said she later revealed the news in October and the new furniture arrived just before winter break.
She said her class removed the old desks the day the furniture was delivered and students were excited as they moved pieces around the room.
“The kids were like rearranging the room the way they thought it should be and sitting around it. And since they all move, it’s easy to move them around the room, so they enjoyed moving them around the room,” Greer said. “Some of them were laying across them and hugging them and, you know, just so excited. Just having something new in the classroom.”
Greer said the last time her classroom had new furniture was in the 1990s. She said a friend who quilts will make quilt covers for the chairs in her classroom.