The Searle Family has supported the growth of The Island School since before the beginning. Bill and Sally Searle made their first gift of support in 1996. The entire family has been behind the development of the semester program and the creation of DCMS and CEI. As of today, four grandchildren have undertaken The Island School journey (Jake Searle S’02, Abby Klarr Bebee S’02, Bekah Klarr S’04 and Nathan Klarr S’11). We also have new energy emerging through the program with new Island School parents, Floyd and Kim Wilson, who have become huge supporters of The Island School program since their daughter, Kelley Duggan, completed her semester in Spring 2011. Together, the Wilson and Searle families play a large role in getting 2012 off to such a strong start with two $1,000,000 lead gifts to support endowment, educators, students and programs.

The Searle Family Matching Challenge endowment gift has the potential to almost double the Foundation’s current endowment and other families have already stepped forward to meet the match. The Wilsons have made a generous lead gift to The Cape Eleuthera Foundation that includes another $500,000 matching challenge which will build an endowment to support the further development of a teaching and learning model that wants to be shared with the world. This level of support ensures the young faculty and research staff at The Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute will receive more support and opportunities for growth as they begin their careers. Floyd and Kim are helping The Island School and its sister programs focus on building a true teaching laboratory at Cape Eleuthera. In addition to the matching endowment challenge there is $500,000 invested in capacity building to boost the Teaching Fellows and Master Teacher in Residence Programs.

We are very inspired by this level of support. If you would like to learn more or discuss how to get involved, please contact Mary Assini at maryassini@islandschool.org.