North Gwinnett Schools Foundation

What an inspiring morning at our Partnership Breakfast last week! We loved hosting Steve Knudsen and Steve Gasper, our school board members, Jimmy Burnette from City of Suwanee, Brandon Hembree, Alvin Hicks, and Joshua Page from City of Sugar Hill, our past principal, John Green, our current principals, as well as past board members and local businesses at our first Partnership Breakfast this past week.

We’re so grateful to Council Member Linnea Miller for sharing her insight and energy. Her message reminded us how powerful this community can be when we work together for our students.

After the program, guests toured several grant locations across North Gwinnett schools and saw your support in action, from hands‑on STEM projects to creative learning spaces already making a difference this year.

If you joined us, tell us which grant stop stood out to you. And if you spot someone you know in these photos, tag them so we can celebrate our partners together.

🐾 Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog 🐾

We loved seeing so many NG alumni (and a past principal) as well as past foundation leaders at our Partnership Breakfast last week! More pics to come, but in this photo alone, we have so many eras represented:
🐾 1960
🐾 1997
🐾 2001
🐾 2003
🐾 2020

If you’re an alum, drop your year in the comments - how far does our Bulldog family reach?

NGSF and the Big T' Do turn 25 this year!

Guy Cecil Gober, our founder, wore many hats, including being on the Gwinnett County Board of Education and working with the Georgia Farm Bureau. Locally, though, he was a farmer who raised chickens off Level Creek Road.

It's absolutely perfect that one of our grants this year allowed Jennifer Chaney's class at Roberts to hatch chickens. They are hatching now and you can view the live cam at the link in the comments!

We are looking forward to a year of celebrating the legacy over the past 25 years while working to fund grants that keep our cluster moving forward!

✨ Big News! ✨
This week, we proudly awarded $81,637 in teacher grants — supporting innovative projects, creative classrooms, and the incredible educators who make our schools shine. 💙📚

And oui oui, there’s still one last chance to support our mission before the year wraps! We’ve added brand-new silent auction items online, including:
• A dreamy getaway to Santorini 🇬🇷
• US Open experience 🎾
• A thrilling stunt pilot adventure ✈️
AND MORE!

Bidding closes tomorrow, so don’t miss these one-of-a-kind opportunities to make an impact and snag an unforgettable experience!

Bid now + support our schools! NGSF.givesmart.com

This morning at the American Education Breakfast, we were honored to present a giant check for $81,637 to support impactful learning across our schools! 🎉🍎

With this year’s awards, the Foundation has now funded over one million dollars in teacher grants — an incredible milestone in our 24th year of serving North Gwinnett Schools. And even more exciting: this year we funded more grants than ever before! 💛✨

We awarded grants to several amazing teachers today, and we can’t wait to continue surprising more educators in early December. Thank you to our sponsors, donors, and community for making these opportunities possible! 📚💛

We were not ready for the Big T’Do to be done…so we have opened the auction back up!

Check out the Santorini Trip and tickets to the US Open!

Check out our givesmart site for these amazing last minute items. Bidding will be open until Saturday November 21st at 12:00pm!

Share with your friends! You do NOT have to be local to win these trips!

A note from Lindsay Davis, President:
Tomorrow is all about the teachers and students as we start announcing grants - and we can’t wait!

But first, we couldn’t have pulled off this year’s Big T’ Do without our sponsors, donors, teacher volunteers, student volunteers, principals, and staff who all contributed to make Saturday a success. We appreciate you all, and we can’t wait to announce the scope of your impact starting tomorrow!

My biggest thank you is to the NGSF Board. This group has worked tirelessly to put together this year’s Big T’ Do, making it a special Midnight in Paris for everyone. They have put in countless hours over the last year, and the event would not have happened without each one of these board members!

Janeen Rumanes-Snow - President Elect
Mary Emily Carter - Event Lead
Kelly Garland - Event Lead
Savannah Gora - Auction Chair
Chris Shumate - Treasurer
Cindy Skibitsky - Secretary
Lennette O’Hern - Fundraising Chair
Angie Gora - Sponsorship Chair
Anna Pearce - Allocations
Patrick Kelly - Technology
Tiffany Kelly - Marketing
Kelsey Grodzicki - Nominations
David Robinson - Graphic Design
Kelly Day - Sponsorship Recognition
Gary Sarver - Procurement Extraordinaire
Robyn Woods - Make It Happen Queen

To our amazing Big T’Do sponsors—thank you! Your support fuels the programs, grants, and resources that help our students and teachers shine. We couldn’t do this work without you, and we are grateful for your commitment to strengthening our schools and community. You made a HUGE impact and we thank you!

Thank you!!!

e.givesmart.com

✨ Honoring Drew Garland ✨

We are proud to present the Gay & Cecil Gober Award to someone who has truly gone above and beyond for the North Gwinnett Schools Foundation — Drew Garland.

Drew served on our board from 2018–2023, attended nearly every Big T’Do, and volunteered countless hours behind the scenes. Whether we needed hands, heart, or even an auctioneer, Drew always showed up ready to help.

Thank you, Drew, for your dedication, your reliability, and the impact you’ve made on our schools and community. This honor is so well deserved! 💛🏆