Welcome to the MEF Newsletter, Volume 1

The class of '25 participated in the tradition of painting the street. Photo by Adele Powers.

We're only a month and a half into the 2024-25 school year and so much has already happened. Here are some of the highlights.

Teacher Training:

Administrators and MindPop training staff at Marfa ISD.

Teachers use dynamic poses to tell a story at MindPop training.

Rural Pathways Excellence Partnership Program (R-PEP):

Partners in Education. Photo from the first R-PEP meeting in the Big Bend region. Catchy name forthcoming.

Rural school districts in the Big Bend are taking advantage of legislation passed in 2023 that allows rural districts that meet specific criteria to collaborate in creating career pathways for students with outcome bonuses for districts.

Partners from Marfa ISD, Alpine ISD, Marathon ISD, Sul Ross State University, Odessa College, Education Partnership of the Permian Basin, and Empower Schools are working together to establish the fourth Innovation Zone in Texas.

MEF Executive Director, Abby Boyd, is on the steering committee which will establish a unified vision, mission, priorities, and goals. We look forward to sharing updates throughout the process.

To learn more about the collaboration, read Mary Cantrell's article in the Big Bend Sentinel: Local school districts join forces to expand career training opportunities.

FUNdraisers:

Thank you, dancers! The Marfa Municipal Alliance honors Loretta Lynn at Planet Marfa. Photo by Sarah M. Vasquez

Marfa 100k. Photo by Sarah M. Vasquez

Defending Champs. Photo by Abby Boyd

We are so grateful to the Marfa community, which shows support for MEF by raising funds in creative ways.

To kick off this school year, the Marfa Municipal Alliance honored Loretta Lynn and raised funds for MEF at Planet Marfa. It was a great night that brought in almost $1,500 to support MEF's mission.

We are looking forward to the Marfa 100 on October 19. MEF was chosen to be the featured nonprofit for this year's event. MEF volunteers will be staffing an aid station along the route. So far we are about halfway to our fundraising goal of $3k.

Last school year Marfa resident, Christy Miller, put on an arm wrestling competition, Armed and Generous. Locals competed for bragging rights and were encouraged to donate to MEF. The champs were Marfa ISD's own Coach Ojeda and Marfa local Augie Gonzales, but the real winner was MEF. We raised over $6k thanks to the generosity of our community! And yes folks, we're planning to do it again this year!

Our work would not be possible without our generous grantmakers, donors, and supporters.

Thanks for tuning in to our first newsletter. We promise not to spam you, just keep you up-to-date with what MEF is doing to support educational programs at Marfa ISD.

Until next time...

The Marfa Education Foundation supports and enhances the work of the Marfa Independent School District, and is committed to facilitating enrichment projects and to augmenting the education of the District’s students, as well as supporting the education of MISD graduates who are attending an institution of higher education or a trade school.