We're excited to come together to participate in McKinney Education Foundation Family Funded Grants 2024, a fundraiser supporting MISD. Our collective passion for this cause drives us, and we need your support to make a difference! Every donation—big or small—helps us reach our fundraising goal and directly impacts this important cause.

Here's how you can help:

• Donate: Contribute whatever you can. Every dollar counts!
• Spread the Word: Share our fundraising page with your friends, family, and social networks. Let’s spread awareness so we can raise more!

Thank you so much for your support! We couldn’t do this without you!

Mrs. Eddins Grant Wish --

One of the critical applications of Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) is the use of communication boards. Playground communication boards are specially designed communication aids that are placed in outdoor play areas, enabling children with communication differences to interact with their peers effectively.

A communication board on the playground helps promote inclusivity, social interaction, language development, empathy, and encourages play and physical activity. 

We would like to have a Core Board installed on the playground at Eddins Elementary. A Core board combines pictures and words of core vocabulary to support communication. At Eddin's we currently have 11 non-verbal students that use Augmentative Communication as their primary form of communication. It is difficult for these young students to manage carrying their communication devices while playing on the playground and because of this they currently play silently alongside their peers. With this proposal, these students would have a way to communicate and thus make deeper connections with their peers in a social setting.

Students with typical verbal and communication abilities also stand to benefit from the increased of students without those skills. By exposure to a variety of students that come from different backgrounds, have different abilities and disabilities, and hearing their stories, they acquire a greater understanding and patience for the world and people around them. They learn to appreciate that communication comes in many forms and that it is the foundation for effective and widespread engagement at school and beyond.