Every year, the Illinois Farm Bureau and Illinois Press Foundation gifts 16 different high schools from Southern Illinois with grant money for journalism. This year, they gifted $21,000 to various schools in our area. The Okawville Launch Pad applied last spring for a portion of the donations. The Launch Pad was overjoyed to hear that they were one of the schools that were gifted money. They received $1,190.
This money was used for web hosting fees, a new portable whiteboard, a tripod upgrade, an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, and, most importantly, an app for Launch Pad. The app, Student News Sources, will allow the members’ stories to reach more viewers. Even though we are at the beginning of the year, Launchpad has improved and added lots of new things to their organization, such as the Launch Pad Instagram page. Brynn Rhodes and Kate Borrenpohl make new videos every week with various members of OHS. Check it out sometime!