GLOUSTER, Ohio — Amid an ongoing financial crisis at Trimble Local School District, a spirit of resilience and generosity is palpable among the community. But that spirit is nothing new for Trimble.
Since 2002, the Trimble Local Textbook & Supplies Foundation has provided nearly $1 million in educational materials to the district. This year, it’s providing $85,343.78 in school supplies — its largest award project yet, said board member Lois Dugan.
Each year, the foundation’s board reviews project proposals that come directly from classrooms, said Terry Dugan, Lois’s husband, a 1966 Glouster High School graduate and former foundation chair from 2017–2025.
“Teachers are allowed to submit a request for materials, and then they forward that request to their building principal, who writes a letter of support if they believe it’s a worthy one,” Terry said. “Those all then go to the curriculum coordinator … and then those requests all come to our foundation board, and each year, we adopt a project based on the teacher’s requests and what the principals and curriculum coordinator determine are the most pressing needs.”
The foundation formed in 2001 around the class of 1951’s 50th class reunion, Terry said. He referred to Dr. Tom Pappas, of Westerville, Ohio, as the “founding father” of the foundation.
Pappas graduated from Glouster High School in 1951. In 2001, while planning for his 50th class reunion, Pappas noted that the district was in “dire straits.” In 2000 the state had declared the district to be in fiscal emergency, as it is now. It was also in “academic emergency,” too, he told the Independent.
“We found out that students were using textbooks that their parents had used,” Pappas said.
Terry and Lois Dugan have lived in Trimble “all of our lives, and it’s always been one of the least affluent — sometimes the least affluent — districts in the state,” Terry said. “We’ve been battling those kinds of issues for a long time.”
The foundation has responded by giving to the district’s evolving needs over the past 20 years, the Dugans explained.
“In the 1990s, again, Lois and I were both working in the schools at that time — that’s when all the proficiency testing and such came into being,” Terry said. “We didn’t have the materials that would address those outcomes. So it became very important to be able to update your textbooks. For quite a few years, textbooks [were] a major aim of the foundation, and then as technology changed, we emphasized SMART boards … And then after that, it went to Chromebooks.”
The foundation’s major fundraising events are a golf outing each September and a Boxing for Books event in November, in cooperation with Sam’s Gym in Glouster.
“We also have been very successful in applying for and receiving grants,” Terry said.
The foundation’s board has 33 members, “mostly local folks … they are alumni and current or former employees of the district,” Terry said.
The Dugans noted that their roots run deep: Terry’s father graduated from Glouster in 1927; Lois’ father in 1924.
“Our kids graduated from Trimble, our grandkids graduated from Trimble,” Terry said. “Our daughter teaches,” Lois added. Their daughter is also on the foundation’s board.
While Pappas has ties to the area, he has long resided in Westerville. But he still feels a sense of “obligation” to his hometown, he said. Like the Dugans, he gives back to the community that raised him.
This weekend, the foundation will sponsor the annual Trimble Local Alumni Bash at Burr Oak State Park’s shelter house from 4–7 p.m. Friday, May 23. The foundation will provide free Wonder Bar hot dogs and water, and will have dessert items for sale, proceeds from which will support the foundation.
The bash serves as “a way of showing our appreciation to the people in the community who’ve supported us,” Terry said.
Donations to the Trimble Local Textbook & Supplies Foundation can also be made to:
Trimble Local Textbook & Supplies Foundation
c/o Sandy Gyure
PO Box 187
Glouster, OH 45732
Find more information on the foundation on its Facebook page.
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