ISLAND FALLS – High school students, aspiring paramedics and local pediatricians recently took advantage of some new educational and civic experiences thanks to nearly $4,000 in grant money from a New Jersey foundation.

A funding arm of National Starch and Chemical Co. in Bridgewater, N.J., recently bestowed the awards.

The company, which operates a plant in Island Falls, donated $1,550 to Katahdin High School to fund art programs, support scholarships, and send students to Washington, D.C.

“The company does something with us every year,” Rae Bates, KHS principal, said recently. “The students took the trip in May and got a chance to take a long look at our government and see how it operates.”

The students were part of the school’s Close Up program, according to the principal, and were members of the junior and senior classes. The teenagers toured the White House and saw all of the government’s monuments, and Bates said that the school has been offering the trip for more than 15 years.

“The principal said that students fund raise for the trip all year long and have already started raising money for the trip next spring,” Bates explained. “It is just a great cultural and social experience for them. The trip is so much different now than it was before September 11, due to all of the new security. But we had no trouble traveling and seeing everything.”

In addition to Katahdin students, youth at Southern Aroostook Community High School also received money for scholarships and civic education trips.

In concert with schools, the local health care sector also benefited from the foundation’s generosity. The Island Falls Ambulance Service will use $900 to help two members upgrade their paramedic licenses. The company’s $1,000 donation to Houlton Regional Hospital will contribute to the completion of the new pediatric office suite. The project, which will expand facilities for the hospital’s two pediatricians, is slated for completion in the fall.

Martin Torbert, a spokesman for National Starch and Chemical Co., said that the 110-year-old business allows branch offices to choose grant recipients each year.

“We had the Island Falls branch choose who the awards went to,” Torbert explained recently. “It works pretty well that way. We always feel that our employees are smarter than we are, and they know who needs the money. It is really a way to give away the money responsibly.”