The Bill of Rights Institute is pleased to recognize a generous grant from the Helen Greathouse Charitable Trust that helped enable us to bring ten talented and dedicated
teachers from West Texas/Permian Basin to Washington D.C. for a three day all expense paid education program in the nation's capital to study the American Founding.
This program, conducted on July 8-11, 2008, included lectures from a respected Constitutional Scholar, training sessions from a Bill of Rights Institute’s Master Teacher, and active learning sessions in which the teachers traveled to Mount Vernon, Gunston Hall, and the National Archives to study the people and places that gave rise to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Perhaps most importantly, the program allowed educators to share ideas, experiences, and teaching strategies with their peers from Texas as well as fifteen outstanding teachers from Kansas who also participated in the program. This program increased the educators' constitutional knowledge and commitment to our founding principles, and in turn these teachers took the knowledge they gained back to the approximately 1,000 West Texas students that they teach each year.
The Helen Greathouse Charitable Trust was established in February, 1997 by Mrs. Greathouse to carry on the philanthropic endeavors that she and her husband pursued during their lifetime. Last year, the Trust contributed more than 2 million dollars to charitable, religious, scientific, literary, and educational organizations and programs that serve Midland County, Texas.
The Bill of Rights Institute would like to take this opportunity to thank the Helen Greathouse Charitable Trust’s for their support of the Bill of Rights Institute and our programs to better educate teachers and students about our Founding documents and principles as well as there rights and responsibilities as citizens.