February 28, 2007: Tauscher visits new school to campaign for literacy.

Students at a Milwaukee elementary school were surprised to see Mark Tauscher, the starting right tackle for the Green Bay Packers, walk through the their door with balloons and a plaque in hand last week.

Tauscher went to Carleton Elementary to present Diane Johnson, a social studies teacher, with an EXCEL grant for $750. Johnson will be the first of 50 MPS teachers to receive a mini-grant up to $750. These EXCEL grants are partly funded by the TRIFECTA Foundation (Tauscher's Reading Initiative for Every Child to Achieve). TRIFECTA is Tauscher's non-profit foundation established to promote children's literacy in Wisconsin, sponsored by Associated Bank.

The EXCEL grant is awarded to MPS teachers based on projects they designed to enhance student learning. Johnson's project, "Bringing History to Life Under African Skies," will provide kindergarten through fifth-grade students with learning experiences about African-American life during slavery. The project will culminate with a field to trip to America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee. The grant money will fund supplementary materials for the classroom's literacy center and allow Johnson to implement her project.