A little help needed...
 

As some of you know, I teach elementary in a district north of Dallas. This year we had a difficult time motivating many of our students. They have been a very challenging group as a whole, and a lot of it stems from their home situations.

At the beginning of the year, many of the 3rd and 4th graders (the grade I teach) didn't know their basic addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts, and so we came up with the idea of taking the kids who could learn the facts and pass two rounds of challenges/quizzes on a fun trip to the high school football stadium and have a bunch of water games, shaving cream fights, etc.

We asked for $400 to buy stuff that could be used for games for both grade levels who are going on consecutive days. We received $200. These kids have very little support at home and have really busted their butts to accomplish this. I know times are very tough for all of us, but if any of you would be interested in donating even $5 or $10, it would go along way to rewarding some students who have really made great strides this year.

If you're interested, post here or PM me and I'll give you the name/address of the school so you can write a check to them. Thanks, I know this will hit a wide range of people who can remember that one teacher or event in school that really meant a lot to them, and I don't want to disappoint these kids who've worked hard all year.

Cap Ologist: Why not use Donor's Choose? We recently had a successful drive on there.

We being FOFC.

interested.

also - donorschoose.org was very helpful to (i think it was) PurdueBrad and his classroom earlier this year

damn you BK!

Interested.

Yup, what DT & BK said. :)

Hopefully Don McLeroy won't be confirmed or I predict further pain for Texas' education system.

I echo the previous comments about suggesting DonorsChoose. I'd donate, bout would honestly feel a little "safer" using a system like that...

/tk

alright, I'll set something up on donor's choice tonight, thanks guys and gals, I knew I could count on ya!

I'll donate if you set it up over there. Or if you just have a Paypal addy available. Always nice to see teachers who care about their students.

Alright, I ran into a few snags on the Donors Choose site. First, I don't have the master list of stuff that we were planning on buying, and the teacher who has it hasn't returned my phone call. Also, I don't have parental permission to post a classroom picture which is a pre-req for creating a project. And finally, I don't think there is enough time for everything to get processed and shipped. We're doing the 3rd grade day a week from this Monday and the 4th grade the day after, and the site says it typically takes about 3 weeks.

I would hate for donations to be made and the stuff not arrive in time. We're basically buying stuff like water balloons, shaving cream, slip and slip and slides, etc. In and of itself, nothing is terribly expensive, it's the just amount of stuff that adds up and we were just planning on going to Wal-Mart to get it. The frustrating thing for me is that yesterday, we were told they were thinking about $400 to spend, and today it was to $200.

If you are still interested in helping out, I have a paypal account that you can send your donation to. I'll have the principal of my school write you and thank you for your donation and what it was used for, just please don't tell them I posted from work, I really don't want to go to a, "So, tell us about Cap Ologist" meeting. ;)

If I could use Donors Choose, I would. I think it's a great idea, and if I'd known that we'd need to do this, I would have done it early enough. I'm just afraid that the stuff wouldn't arrive by June 1st. Heck, if JeeberD wants to show up and report on the festivities, I'd give him directions if that will set people's mind at ease.

Anyway, thanks for all of the offers to help, if you're still interested, about 160 3rd and 4th graders would greatly appreciate it as well as the teachers at my school. If anyone has any other ideas on anything I can do to make this as above reproach as possible, I'll do whatever I can. Thanks!

Thats real short notice.
Here is a suggestion. Go to your local wal-mart and tell them you were planning to buy $400 dollars worth of stuff, but could only raise $200. Tell them what you told us. I would imagine that Wal-Mart would match your $200 dollars and then you have the $400 you need.

Our local Wal-mart matches or used to match what our HS baseball team raised during their fund raiser.

If not, go around to local businesses and ask for a donation. I know in our district all you have to do is ask and people are very willing to help.

Hey Cap, do me a favor and PM me your Paypal account. I will gladly donate to help you guys out. I'm about to hit the sack but I'll do it no later than tomorrow at noon. Good luck!

pm sent and thanks!

Send me the Paypal account as well, please!

Bump for the morning crowd.

And Cap, sent, let me know if you don't reach the goal by Monday and we can send more.

pm sent Jeebs, and thank you again to both of you!

No problem, Cap. Hope you get enough to pull it off...

I'll also take a PM on the paypal, plzkthx.

Send it over. I'm in.

+1

Please. :)

PMs sent, thank you all very much for your generosity!

Send me a PM too, please.

Money sent. I want pictures of.........

A) You grinning like the Cheshire Cat as you spend someone else's money in Wal-Mart.
B) You getting a cream pie in the face.

I'm sure there will no shortage of students who'd be willing to help with B.

PM me too, but I won't be able to send money til later tonight.

Money sent.

My sister teaches in a very similar situation in Florida. Some of the stories I hear about the lack of support from home/parents is just sad to hear about.

Good luck reaching your goal!!

sent!

sent!
/tk

Thanks to all who contributed, I'm very grateful to all of you. Together, you quickly donated $250 and made not only my day, but our Math specialist who works with the lowest of the low kiddos. It was her idea to offer this as an incentive for the students and she's been the lead planner, and it really made her day when I told her about the response I was getting throughout the day. Since we exceeded the goal, if any of you would like a partial refund, I'll be more than happy to send money back your way. If not, I'll just be bombarded by that many more water balloons and shaving cream.

I have one last favor to those who donated, if you could PM me your mailing address, I'd greatly appreciate it. And again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Things like this on this forum just warm my heart. I'd like to also thank everyone who helped. I'm sorry that I couldn't but you guys are awesome people.

Cap, no refund here, I want you guys to buy more balloons, shaving cream, etc. and just have a fun day for those kids.

I'm with PB, here, no refund necessary. But in addition to the balloons and shaving cream, I recommend eggs, for tosses/relays. :)

/tk

no refund necessary!

Give me half my money back, dammit! ;)

No refund necessary.

Ditto. Buy the kids something extra. :)

Here are some preliminary pictures of the 3rd grade fun day. They ended up using the FOFC funds to rent a water slide/bounce house. Unfortunately they set it up with the sun behind it so my pictures don't look to great. It's the big blue and yellow thing in the first few pictures. Thanks again, they're out there having a blast right now.

Awesome pics, but where's the 'Cap with a pie in his face' picture?

That's tomorrow, I have to teach today.

Awesome pictures. Looks like the kids had a blast :)

a waterslide/bounce house?? i'm jealous!!!!!

looks like awesome fun!!