BP Ed Foundation awarded $24K grant

For more than 20 years, Sue Zwiener has been involved with the Blooming Prairie Education Foundation (BPEF). And when her company came forth with a major grant to help the group, she felt “pretty tickled.”
New York Life recently awarded a $24,000 Community Impact Grant to the foundation to enhance the educational opportunities for students within Blooming Prairie Public Schools.
“This is something that’s near and dear to me,” said Zwiener. “We are pretty excited about it.”
The grant will support the STEAM program, which provides students with learning opportunities in science, technology, engineering, art and math.
Karen Fouarge, president of BPEF, said the group is grateful for New York Life’s investment in the organization. “It will change many lives for the better,” she said. “Without the support from New York Life, we wouldn’t be able to provide this extraordinary education to all our students due to having to cancel our auction in 2020 because of COVID.”
BPEF’s annual auction has raised as much as $80,000 a year over the 16 years of sponsoring auctions. The group had hoped to achieve the $1 million mark at last year’s auction. However, the auction was canceled when COVID-19 hit just weeks before the event, scheduled for late March.
“It was such a bummer last year,” said Zwiener, who was a pilgrim of the auction when it began in the early 2000s. But, even without an auction last year, BPEF still managed to raise about $50,000, according to Zweiner.
Zwiener, along with Rachel Blaedorn, both local agents of New York Life, said they are proud to work for a company that encourages its agents and employees to devote their time, energy and talents to support the needs and priorities of their local community.
“We are pleased that our partnership will have a long-lasting impact on the Blooming Prairie Education Foundation and the population they serve,” Zwiener said.
New York Life awards grants up to $25,000 to local nonprofit organizations. Since the program’s inception in 2008, more than 600 grants totaling nearly $8 million have been awarded to nonprofits across the country.
This isn’t the first time Zwiener has pulled for Blooming Prairie through New York Life’s community program. In 2011, she helped secure a $15,000 grant for what is now the Blooming Prairie Youth Club.