While local school districts try to provide educators will all the resources they need to prepare the next generation, often times there simply is not enough money in the budget for teachers to provide students with special trips or programs to liven up their daily lessons.

It is a problem that agents with Niles’ Hagen Insurance Agency are all too familiar with.

Abbi Wegner and her father, Dean Hagen, are both former Dowagiac Union Schools teachers, with more than 40 combined years of classroom experience between them. The two always had to figure out how to stretch their annual budgets in order to give students the best educational experience possible.

Today, though, the two are able to lend a hand to teachers, thanks to the power of The Meemic Foundation.

Last month, Niles insurance agency handed out checks to more than a dozen local educators, from Dowagiac, Niles, Brandywine, Cassopolis and Lewis Cass Intermediate School District, to help pay for additional materials and programs for their classrooms. The Meemic Foundation, a nonprofit agency founded by Meemic Insurance, awarded the money to the educators who applied for grant dollars through during the summer.

Grant recipients included:

• Lauren Leighton, Dowagiac Middle School, who received $500 for supplies

• Paula Rose and Christine Lace, Eastside Elementary, who received $500 for supplies (Lace also received a $100 Scholastic books grant)

• Rikki Jones, Ryan Bigelow and Scott Morgan, Ring Lardner Middle School, who all received $100 Scholastic books grants

• Angela Cramer, Ballard Elementary, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

• Staci Fagel, Niles Seventh Day Adventist School, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

• Rachele Ward, Cassopolis High School, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

• Renee Newland, Cassopolis Middle School, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

• Jeff Wernette, Cassopolis Schools, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

• Lisa McClain-Paulsen, Lewis Cass ISD, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

• Kristine Rettig, Moccasin Elementary School, who received a $100 Scholastic books grant

The Meemic Foundation is all about giving back to educators, whom Meemic Insurance agents such as Wegner and Hagen exclusively provide home and auto coverage to through their office, Wegner said. Hagen, a retired computer science instructor and baseball coach with Dowagiac Union High School, started his agency in Niles in 1975, making it the second oldest Meemic Insurance agency in the state, Wegner said.

“It was always a pain to apply for grants [back when I was teaching],” Wegner said. “However, Meemic is very teacher friendly. All teachers have to do is answer a few questions and they are all set. I know from experience its one of the easiest ways to get money for your classroom.”

The foundation, which has awarded nearly $2 million in grants over the years, offers several types of grants every year.

Every quarter, it offers traditional $500 grants for educators to use for a variety of purposes, including field trips, robotic teams, office supplies and computer software, Wegner said. The foundation also regularly partners with other businesses, such as OfficeMax, Lakeshore Learning or Scholastic, to offer specialized grants to teachers.

Leighton, who teaches life skills and English to sixth-grade students, was one of the recipients of the $500 grants. She said she is using the money to pay for traditional office supplies, such as pencils, paper, composition notebooks, etc., in order to save money in her budget for more cooking and sewing supplies for her life skills course.

For example, she is planning on buying a variety of rare fruit and vegetables for students to try out during her lessons on healthy foods, she said.

“I can expose children to new foods they may have never tasted before,” Leighton said.

Leighton learned about the foundation’s grant program during a presentation by Hagen at the middle school several months ago. She was impressed by how simple it was to apply for grant dollars, as all she had to do was fill out some basic information and a single paragraph about how she planned to use the grant dollars.

“I’m excited to try new things with my students, and I would not have this opportunity without their [Meemic’s] help,” Leighton said.