With this year's donations, the Geneva Academic Foundation has passed the $1 million mark in grants to support Geneva public schools.

The 2009 grants were announced at the annual Community Leadership Breakfast Wednesday at Geneva High School. The breakfast is held during American Education Week. Students, teachers, business people and civic leaders attended.

New this year was the presentation of an award named after the late Warren "Bud" Gilligan, one of the founders of the GAF 22 years ago.

Tom Potkanowicz, foundation chairman, recalled how Gilligan decided the schools needed help, after he saw a U.S. flag with 48 stars hanging in one of the schools.

The Bud Gilligan Award was given to Deb Scheiner, a first-grade teacher at Fabyan Elementary School, for her request of an interactive whiteboard to use in the classroom. The award was funded by a donation from Fox Valley Orthopedics.

Overall, the GAF awarded $58,881 for 32 projects. It will help design a new set for Geneva High School's television production studio, provide Kindles for an after-school book club at the high school, deliver 12 microscopes to an elementary school, and underwrite a two-day clinic with jazz violinist Randy Sabien.

School board President Mary Stith spoke of the success of a Geneva graduate, Chris Meehan. Meehan, now pursuing a doctorate in biological mutualism, has recently won acclaim for a discovery he made of a vegetarian spider in Mexico.

"I think there are many, many Chris Meehans that we welcome into our schools and graduate and send outward," Stith said.

Superintendent Kent Mutchler thanked the community for its support of the schools.

"We're dream-makers for kids," he said.