Toms River Education Foundation donates $10,000 to help Toms River Schools buy uniforms

The Toms River Education Foundation, a non-profit started up by Toms River Councilman Terrance Turnbach, is donating $10,000 to the Toms River Regional School District to help them purchase team uniforms at each of the three high schools.

A 5K fundraising event hosted by the TREF in late November helped in raising the first round of funding for the school district.

“This Foundation was founded on the principle that extra-curricular school activities are as critical to a student’s educational experience as lessons learned in the classroom," Toms River Education Foundation President Erin Cosentino said in a statement provided to 92.7 WOBM News. "Lessons learned outside the classroom promote team building, responsibility, critical thinking and problem solving. This donation is the first of what the Foundation expects to be many donations to insure Toms River Regional School students receive a well-rounded education.”

“As a result of the school budget cuts caused by the S2 funding formula, this Foundation is working tirelessly to insure that Toms River Regional School District students have every opportunity to participate in the extra-curricular school based activities that interest them," Toms River Education Foundation Vice President Jennifer Howe said in the statement. "No child should be left out from participating in the arts or sports because of an inability of the child’s family to pay or an inability of the school district to fund. This Foundation will continue to raise money to support our students.”

You can continue supporting the Toms River Education Foundation and the students who are involved in extra curricular activities in Toms River Regional Schools at the next TREF event.

It's a fundraiser being held at the Office Lounge in Toms River on January 21 from 11:30 am to 9:30 pm.

TREF says that if you eat in or order take out from the Office Lounge that day and mention the Toms River Education Foundation, 15% of the proceeds will be donated back to the Foundation.

Toms River councilman Turnbach formed this non-profit organization to help keep extra curricular activities in the school district in the midst of tough economic times and from the dagger dealt to Toms River Schools from the State's S2 school funding formula.

The Toms River Education Foundation raises money through events with all the proceeds going toward funding extra curricular activities.

Toms River Councilman Terrance Turnbach told 92.7 WOBM News on November 2 that the foundation is not only meant to keep programs up and running but keep them free for students.

"We don't want a situation where the students are being asked to pay to participate or pay to play so we want every student to have an equal opportunity to participate in any programs they want to...that's what school is about," Turnbach said.

All the money raised through the foundation will go towards a variety of needs for extra curricular activities to take place.

"100-percent of the money raised will go back to the school district to fund extra curricular activities and there's no particular focus on any one activity," Turnbach said. "It's not going to be all for sports or all for the arts, it's going to be where the need is so we want to make sure that if children want to be involved in a play, that there's funding for the play, if they want to be involved in intramural sports, that there's funding for intramural sports, if there's a need for uniforms, that uniforms can be paid for so it'll be across the board."

The money is meant to keep the extra curricular activities going but while and when they are, the focus shifts towards helping students develop important life skills.

"We just want to give the kids every opportunity to be students and to have the experience of being a student at the Toms River Regional School District where they can do whatever they want to do...that's where they're going to grow," Turnbach said.

You can follow Vin Ebenau on Twitter and Instagram and email news tips to vin.ebenau@townsquaremedia.com.

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