The Calvert Marine Museum has received a grant for $13,500 from the PNC Foundation to fund opportunities for pre-school children in the Southern Maryland region. PNC Grow Up Great initiative is designed to help prepare children – particularly underserved children – from birth to age five for success in school and life.
Through Grow Up Great, PNC emphasizes the importance of the first five years of life, which research has shown is critical to long-term achievement. The program helps families, educators, and community partners provide innovative opportunities that enhance learning and development in a child’s early years.
The PNC funding will enable the museum to bring in special guests for the monthly pre-school programs: Sea Squirts for children 18-months to 3 years, and Little Minnows for children 3 to 5 years, and their caregivers. Special topics will include music enrichment, art enrichment, children’s authors, and hands on science.
In addition to museum-based programming, the grant will subsidize free outreach programs for low-income children at pre-approved sites, such as Headstart. These are 30-minute programs that involve hands-on, active learning. Children will also receive a free pass to the museum to encourage parents to bring them to visit.
The museum also presents three special event days designed with young children in mind: Dino Day, Pirate Day, and Otter Mania. The grant provides funding to support these events. There is also funding for an interactive wall map of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and equipment to be used in educational programming.
The PNC Foundation, which receives its principal funding from The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., actively supports organizations that provide services for the benefit of communities in which it has a significant presence. Through Grow Up Great, its signature cause that began in 2004, PNC has created a $350 million, multi-year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.
