How It Began

Friends of Montessori in Iowa began in 2018 with a group of parents interested in supporting the Montessori School of Marion and Montessori education in Iowa.  The founding families established the bylaws and were the first Board of Directors for the organization, lovingly called “FOMI”.  It was quickly realized that the best way to support the school would be to raise funds for various goals ranging from replacing lost/damaged materials to purchasing new materials to purchasing a new “home” for the school.  

With these goals in mind, working with Aurora Costache, Directress of the Montessori School of Marion, Friends of Montessori in Iowa completed the necessary paperwork to be recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Iowa in February 2019 with the following purpose:

  • Expand our Montessori Support to like-minded individuals in the community in order to grow our school and its champions. 

  • Support our Montessori School to act as a Parent/Teacher Association.

  • Raise awareness of Montessori Education and Techniques in the Community and the State of Iowa. 

In late 2018 through 2019, the Friends of Montessori in Iowa group reached out to all Montessori schools within the Cedar Rapids metro area to grow the network outside of our immediate school and grow a Montessori advocacy group.  Most schools already had their own Parent/Teacher Associations, so the FOMI organization shifted their purpose to solely focus on Montessori School of Marion.

  • FOMI is now primarily a Parent/Teacher Association. We help raise funds for Montessori School of Marion.

    FOMI has 3 primary fundraisers annually. Our fall fundraiser is a wreath sale through Sherwood Forest Farms. Our winter fundraiser is the Sweetheart Banquet that we do around Valentine's Day. Our spring fundraiser is Mother's Day bouquets that we do through Your Flower Store.

    FOMI also helps support the staff at MSM. We celebrate Teacher appreciation week annually by providing the teachers with lunches, gifts, and showing them how much the children and families appreciate all their hard work.

  • FOMI provides Montessori School of Marion with an outreach program to both members of the community and members of our school. We put on coffee socials to allow our families time to get to know each other. We also have quarterly meetings with the Board to keep families informed of what is coming up within our school, and to provide families the opportunity to voice their opinions on where the organization is headed and how to better help support MSM.

  • When called upon, FOMI is available to help raise awareness of Montessori education and techniques. Montessori School of Marion is the only fully accredited American Montessori Society school in the state of Iowa. For this reason we feel that we have a duty to our community to share our experiences being part of an accredited school community.