By SUSAN ARANT, Contributor

What do concrete, mortar, money and education have in common? They are all the primary ingredients in building a solid foundation.

What? Well, according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a foundation is “a usually stone or concrete structure that supports a building from underneath.”  Yet another definition is “an organization that is created and supported with money that people give in order to do something that helps society.”

And two things near and dear to me (besides my family) are houses and philanthropy. For me, houses are so much more than mortar and bricks, it is a place for family. My husband and I have built our lives around homes so I really like that the first dictionary definition is central to a structure, which for me resonates home. And like most of you, the most important building in our life is our home.

The second definition is about supporting organizations that help society. What a wonderful idea. Working with a foundation to better the community we live in – creating, in a figurative sense, theoretical mortar and stone – something so worthwhile and strong that it aligns a group of people for a single cause.  

While there are many invaluable charities to choose, the one that I believe most unites our community is education. We all have a vested interest in the education of the next generation. As parents, we want our children to have the best opportunities to succeed in life. As a neighborhood, we elevate ourselves through education. Even from a real estate point of view, our home values are bound by the success of the students, schools and the school district we are in.

That said, I would like to thank the Hill Country Education Foundation for making a difference in strengthening our community. Since its inception in 2009, HCEF has raised money for our schools and has funded

• more than $80k in grants awarded to Vandergrift and its feeder schools

• Naviance – a college readiness platform for all of LISD

• ReadiStep – eighth grade assessment testing

• $18k for the VHS biomedical program

• $30k in robotics for elementary and middle schools

• a pilot Mandarin Chinese program, Ebooks and the list goes on.

This past weekend, with the support of neighbors, community members and local businesses, HCEF’s annual GiddyUp Gala raised over $100k of which nearly 100 percent goes back to our teachers, students and schools.  Through the support of foundations, we are impacting education, children, homes and our community – one stone, one dollar, one program at a time.

Susan Arant is a Four Points resident and part of the Gene Arant Real Estate Team Keller Williams Realty.