Community Profile: The Hills Foundation

The Hills Foundation was founded in the early 1990s to help support programs and initiatives that the Half Hollow Hills School District could no longer support.

Denise Ham, the group’s current president, is helping to continue that tradition through a number of education enrichment initiatives.

The foundation has given more than $30,000 since its inception, with teachers able to apply for grants from $100 to $1,000. These grants have allowed teachers to create various enrichment programs, such as “Peers Advocating for Healthy Behaviors,” “Portfolio of Primary Writing Process,” “Enhancement for Kindergarten Listening Centers,” and an astronomy night, Ham said.

“What keeps me going is to give back to the community,” she said. “My children have been out of the district for a while, but I really feel like the district served my children well and I always have a sense of what I can give back to the community. That’s what inspires me to keep going.”

Ham became the president at the start of this school year and previously served as vice president for three years. She has been with the Hills Foundation since the late 90s.

In addition to the grants, the foundation also helps to bring in speakers to come educate the community. Past speakers have included former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as Holocaust survivors and a reformed Ku Klux Klansman who became an ally to Dr. Martin Luther King.

“Really it’s about helping to build the character of our children,” Ham said. “Whatever we can do to make them better students of something.”

Other programs that the foundation has supported include a student and staff exchange with schools in Beijing, China, a recent sponsoring of conference days of parent workshops and a $5,000 donation to the district’s new robotics program.

The foundation raises its money through fundraising and has a night at Adventureland specifically for Half Hollow Hills students coming up this Friday. There will also be a 50/50 raffle drawing of $25 tickets on June 15, with a first prize of $5,000.

Ham said that the foundation is making an effort to become more well known in the district, and that the effort has started to show. While the foundation typically receives fewer than 20 applications for grants, this year it received 50 and was able to grant 19. Ham said she hopes the bigger community profile results in more money at fundraisers.

“My goal is to never turn down a grant,” she said. “We’re hoping that through people becoming more aware and revitalizing the partnership with the PTA and other community groups that we’ll have increased funding so that we don’t ever have to turn down anyone who asks us for a grant.”