MADISON – The Evjue Foundation, the charitable arm of The Capital Times, has awarded the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation a $5,000 grant to support its effort to launch a statewide high school civics competition.
The WNA Foundation was one of 44 grant recipients Evjue announced Wednesday.
“We are incredibly grateful for the Evjue Foundation’s support and generosity,” said Andrew Johnson, president of the WNA Foundation and publisher of the Dodge County Pionier (Mayville), Campbellsport News and Kewaskum Statesman. “Newspapers have long played an important role in promoting civic engagement and democracy. This grant helps us continue building on that mission.”
The WNA Foundation plans to launch the competition, which will include regional bowls and a state final, in Fall 2019. The effort aims to address declines in civic education in high schools and civic engagement in local communities. It also addresses a need to help prepare students for the recently adopted Civics Graduation Requirement, which requires any student graduating from a Wisconsin high school to pass the civics test given to individuals applying for U.S. citizenship.
Evjue Foundation grants are made possible by the will of William T. Evjue, the founder and longtime editor and publisher of The Capital Times. According to the newspaper, when Evjue died in 1970, his will directed that proceeds from his controlling stock in the company be distributed through the Foundation to charitable, educational and cultural organizations in the Dane County area. The Evjue Foundation has awarded more than $2.3 million in 2017 and more than $56 million since 1970.
Evjue was posthumously inducted into the WNA Foundation’s Wisconsin Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2001.
About the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation
The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation is a not-for-profit organization created in 1980 to support programs that foster excellence in journalism, engage current and future newspaper leaders and invest in our communities. The foundation solicits, manages and disburses funds and other resources for the benefit of Wisconsin’s newspaper industry.
