Our History

2022:

Our Online Tutoring Program was created and tested in two kindergarten classes. Teachers enrolled their lowest performers. Our volunteers went into the classroom armed with iPads to lead group sessions using the free, award-winning Khan Academy Kids software. During the tutoring, the children learn to navigate the very iPad they are allowed to take home at the end of each school day.

2021:

To make the greatest impact, we narrowed our focus to kindergarten and first-grade literacy/math and fifth-grade science. We changed our name to the Know & Grow Learning Depot, Inc.

2020:

Early on, we had a generic mission of helping the school in any way possible. We engaged in different activities such a beautifying the grounds, building an outdoor classroom, enriching the K-5 science program, establishing a tutoring program, and providing Know & Grow products.

2019: 

Know & Grow Learning Depot began in 2019 as Friends of Dinsmore Elementary. Our president and co-founder, Linda Brunson, a former CPA, was motivated to help as she was a student at Dinsmore Elementary decades ago. Her parents – like so many in the community today – did not graduate from high school. Linda remembers sitting at the dining table with a third-grade textbook spread out in front of her when her parents told her she was “on her own” as they could no longer answer any homework questions. And that was in the textbook age, prior to everything going digital!

Thank you to the volunteers, donors, partners, teachers, and school staff who have made our mission possible.