FOUNDATION PARCELS OUT GOVERNOR'S SCHOOL GRANT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 24, 1992                   TAG: 9201240292
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Medium
FOUNDATION PARCELS OUT GOVERNOR'S SCHOOL GRANT
The parent of a Pulaski County senior attending the Southwest Virginia Governor's School found a way to add $3,000 to the regional magnet school's coffers Thursday.
Mary Ann Dye, a United Parcel Service employee, sought and obtained the grant from the UPS Foundation. Pat Duncan, the school's director, said it would be used for student academic activities.
"We're fixing to take a trip to VPI for the academic excellence conference and I'm taking 15 students to that," Duncan said.
Also coming up is the Virginia Junior Academy of Science at the University of Richmond for which all the students will submit papers.
"And if all 61 students are accepted, I don't know what I'm going to do," Duncan said. "I'll probably have to get out on the corner and sell tea, coffee and lemonade."
Dye's oldest son, Jay, attends the school. She heard Duncan talking last summer about the cost of a planned student trip to Wallops Island on the state's Eastern Shore for science field work.
She decided she might be able to find some money to help pay for such activities.
She said UPS offers scholarships for sons and daughters of its employees, as well as low-interest loans for college, "so they're very strong on education."
So she applied for the $3,000 grant and got it.
But that is not all she has done to support the school.
She and Jay spent nearly a month, off and on, painting the doors, trim, stairways and other parts in the Governor's School building on the Pulaski County High School campus, saving the cost of labor for the job.
She said she has gotten plenty of practice painting since she and her family live in a pre-Civil War farmhouse she is gradually restoring.
"It's the old Lizzie Gunn home," Dye said.
Gunn probably taught most Pulaski County residents who are now more than 60 years old, she said, although people younger than that often ask her to spell out her Lizzie Gunn Road address.
"I work second shift, so I can't go to PTA meetings and things like that," said Dye, who has another son, Matthew, in school. "So I have to help out in other ways. . . . A lot of people don't realize you can donate your time."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB