Golden Apple Annual Educator Award

Freedom Federal Credit Union’s Golden Apple Educator Awards Now Open for Submissions

Golden Apple Awards Call for Entries Header Image

Program will award $10,000 in grants to educators across Harford County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, and Baltimore City

March 26, 2026 – Freedom Federal Credit Union is now accepting applications for its 2026 Golden Apple Annual Education Awards, an annual program that will provide $10,000 in grant funding to local educators across Harford County, Baltimore County, Carroll County and Baltimore City. Eligible applicants include employees of public and private primary and secondary schools, including teachers, administrators, and support staff. Applicants must be new or existing Freedom members to receive an award.

For more than a dozen years, the Golden Apple Awards have helped local educators bring impactful ideas to life in their classrooms, schools, and communities. “It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how the Golden Apple Educator Awards program has grown over the years,” said Mike MacPherson, President and CEO of Freedom Federal Credit Union. “What began as a way to honor and support our members who are educators has continued to expand, allowing us to invest in innovative ideas that positively impact students, energize schools, and strengthen communities.”

Freedom will award ten Golden Apple Educator Awards this year, including two $2,000, four $1,000, and four $500 awards to local education employees. The program recognizes educators with innovative ideas that can positively impact students, classrooms, schools, and the broader community.

As part of the application, entrants must submit an essay addressing one or more of the following questions:

  1. What is your creative idea or initiative to benefit your students, classroom, or school, and how will you bring it to life using the funds from this award?
  2. How will your idea or initiative support or improve the learning experience of your students or benefit your classroom or school overall?
  3. Will your idea or initiative benefit the overall community? If yes, how so?

Interested applicants can complete the entry form available at freedomfcu.org/golden-apple and submit their completed application materials to enter@freedomfcu.org by May 31, 2026. Entries will be reviewed by a panel of Freedom employees, volunteers and community partners. Award recipients will be contacted by June 22, 2026 and will be honored guests at an awards reception in August.

About Freedom Federal Credit Union

Freedom Federal Credit Union is a community-chartered federal credit union offering business banking services and consumer financial services to those who live, work, volunteer, worship, attend school, or have family in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, and Harford County. Freedom was founded in 1953 and currently has eight locations throughout Harford and Baltimore Counties. To learn more, visit freedomfcu.org.

 

Golden Apple Award Winners Announced

Winner and Runners-Up Selected in Golden Apple Plus Annual Educator Award Competition

Golden Apple Annual Award Winners 2016
At back, left-to-right are Freedom President/CEO Michael MacPherson and runner-up Thomas Fare. In front, left-to-right are Shelly Sparks, runner-up, winner Alisa Janiski, and Patrice Ricciardi, Freedom Business Development Specialist.

We’re pleased to announce that Alisa Janiski is the winner of our 2016 Golden Apple Plus Annual Educator Award competition. Ms. Janiski, a teacher at both Church Creek Elementary and Roye-Williams Elementary, won the top $1,000 prize for her concept called “Code for Change.” The award is for a Freedom member who is a deserving teacher, school administrator or school support employee.

Ms. Janiski’s winning concept will use computer programming in a lesson plan designed for elementary school students. It uses LEGO and K’NEX pieces combined with programing to teach engineering, robotics and problem-solving. As a result, she said, students will be able to work in teams to design, construct, and program to solve a problem.

According to Ms Janiski, possibly the best aspect of computer coding is the element of failure that the students experience. They are forced to troubleshoot, debug, and recreate multiple times until they reach success.Through her work at two schools, Ms. Janiski has the potential to impact 1,300 students.

Runner-Up Awards

First and second place runner-up awards of $250 each-were won by Thomas Fare, a second grade teacher at Hall’s Cross Roads Elementary, and Shelly Sparks who teaches at North Harford High School.

Mr. Fare’s winning entry included several ideas, such as engaging parents by filming students in the classroom for parents to view on a secure web site. He also developed a concept to make writing, proofreading and editing fun by turning the process into an experience like operating on a patient. In addition, he wants to secure an English as a Second Language (ESOL) certification to help non-English speaking students at his school.

Ms. Sparks won for her idea to purchase a document camera to incorporate additional STEM concepts into her Mathematics lessons. The camera, she said, will help students learn the step-by-step processes of problem solving, and will engage them to demonstrate their reasoning skills and perseverance to solve math problems. Seeing how different students can interpret and solve a problem will help the students reinforce that there is not just one way to think mathematically. By energizing and motivating the students, she hopes they may decide to pursue careers involving mathematics.

All applicants were asked to submit an essay demonstrating how their idea would serve their students, class, school and the Harford County community. Entries were judged by a panel of Freedom employees, board members, and a business partner; including President/CEO Mike MacPherson, Chief Risk Officer Michele Young, Board members Ronnie Davis and Lisa Ermatinger, and Mary Hastler, President of the Harford County Public Library Foundation.