School's new Web site helps with fund-raising

Lamping Elementary School recently went online with the launch of its own Web site to keep parents and students up to date on school events and news, and also to help raise funds for the school's McCool Science Center.

According to principal Michael O'Dowd, the Lamping Web site has been up and running since mid-November. O'Dowd said school officials had been interested in starting a Web site for some time, but didn't know how to go about it until Dana Czerwinski, a parent, volunteered to put the site together and serve as its webmaster.

"Dana did a great job with the Web site. She had it up and running in about one week once approval from the school district came through," O'Dowd said.

In addition to helping raise funds for the school's science center, the Web site offers parents general school information, which O'Dowd said has been helpful for the year-round school.

"The site is phenomenal, there is so much there for parents," O'Dowd said. "If you've been on track break you can get behind on what's going on, news from the school, and that doesn't happen now.

"There are updates, information on school policies and fund-raisers -- it's a great resource for parents."

O'Dowd also said that so far, fund-raising efforts for the science center have gone well, and the school is about halfway to its goal of raising $650,000.

The science center, which will be named in honor of William McCool, a pilot who died aboard the space shuttle Columbia, will be a 4,300 square foot freestanding structure on the school's campus.

The McCool Science Center is part of the national Space Explorers Program. The Lamping Elementary School program is the only one in the western United States.

"Through the Web site community members can donate money for the center or sponsor parts of the building," O'Dowd said. "Fund-raising efforts have gone very well so far, and our students have worked very hard. We're about halfway to our goal right now."

The school also will host its second annual fund-raising gala dinner on Friday, which will honor the contributions of Mary Beth Scow. A Southern Nevada resident for the past 25 years, Scow was elected to the Clark County School District board of school trustees in 1996, and has served two terms as president of the board.

O'Dowd said last year's gala raised about $100,000, which was used to buy the space shuttle and mission control simulators students began using last fall. He hopes Friday's gala will raise another $100,000.

"Our main goal is to integrate science into every aspect of the students' education, so that science also becomes a part of reading, writing and math for them," O'Dowd said. "We want to better prepare these students for the future, including college and jobs someday."

For more information or to make a donation, visit www.lampingelementary.com.