Can you give $5?
This is it. We're in the home stretch of AT's Donors Choose Challenge. AT is currently in 2nd place in our division with $4,140 total raised! We still want to raise $2,060 to fully fund these projects. Please help us!
• Kid-sized couch for kindergartners in Tennessee ($586 needed)
• Art projector for middle-schoolers in New York ($685 needed)
• Mural paint supplies for students in Chicago ($789 needed)
Click through to our Giving Page to donate!
Basic Supplies:a classroom in Georgia needs basic school supplies such as pencils, paper, crayons, and a pencil sharpener. FUNDED!- Kitchen Center:
Mrs. P's kids in New York City need a kitchen center and play pots and pans. FUNDED! 20 Desks:Students in Louisiana need 20 desks to have their own space while having the ability to complete group projects. FUNDED!Composition Notebooks($125 needed): First-graders in Northern California need new composition notebooks for daily writing. FUNDED!Activity Tables($801 needed): Mrs. R's classroom in Tennessee needs seven round activity tables conducive to cooperative learning. FUNDED!Basic Supplies($206 needed): 2nd-graders in Brooklyn need basic supplies like crayons, pencils, and glue. FUNDED!- Kid-sized couch and Easel ($621 needed): Kindergartners in Tennessee need a kid sized couch for their listening center, a big book magnetic book holder, and a large magnetic write and wipe easel.
- Projector ($823 needed): Mr. C's middle-schoolers need a projector so they can view art historical powerpoint presentations, instructional and tie-in videos, and present their own multimedia projects to the rest of the class and the school at large.
- Paint Supplies ($899 needed): Students in Chicago need mural paint, paint brushes, and 20 sets of paint markers.
And here's how Apartment Therapy is doing on all their sponsored projects:
AT Donors: 168
AT Donor Donations: $4,140
Students Impacted: 322
Top image via Little Flock
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
I work closely with DonorsChoose.org as one of their suppliers, but I also make frequent donations. I can't help myself, it's addictive.
I can't express in mere words how I feel about this organization. All I can say is go to their site and look around. You can choose projects by city, poverty level, materials needed or even Cost to Complete. If you complete the project or make a partial contribution of $100 or more, you will receive photos of the children using the materials that your donation provided. Plus the children handwrite thank notes and sometime drawings. I'm thrilled everytime I find one of these packages in my mail.
A good friend of mine is a guidance counselor at a high school in Harlem. She is in charge of helping students apply to college who might not otherwise do so, and educate them on their financial aid opportunities. She set up a cause on donorschoose.org to fund SAT prep books and other college reference materials. Please help her cause!
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=214346
I'm curious why you're starting this now.... my christmas fund, with its allotment for charities, isn't due to mature till the first week in December. I'll gladly donate then, but right now is really rough, financially. I know charities need things all year long, but I'm still earning interest on my funds!
That70sHeidi -
The reason for the timing is because American Express running a contest and donating $1.5 million to the winning charity. Even if you can't donate right now, you can help. If you are an AmEx cardholder, please log on to the AmEx site and vote for DonorsChoose.org. They made the cut for the final 5 charities. Your vote can help them win, and the prize money will go directly toward funding teacher's projects.
Thanks a great deal for choosing my project to post. The students haven't had art in the school so it takes a lot to get them integrated into an educational art making process (and away from spongebob and coloring books- not that coloring bks and cartoons can't be used in some way). The students are very visual learners and need a lot of examples, so they can visualize the projects. This takes a huge amount of xeroxing. Projecting the images would be so much more efficient and engaging.
Again, thanks for posting the project. These are hard economic times, and a lot of funding has been eliminated.
Hey I had never heard this and was glad to participate. However, not sure how they know we are AT contributors. There was no reference to AT.
Hi Kimberlina -- the links we've provided above first go through Apartment Therapy's Giving Page, so all donations will be attributed to AT. Thanks for your donation!
I bet more than a few AT fans would want to buy those old desks. I saw a really cool vintage school desk at a garage sale, I regret not buying.
The left handedness in me cringed at the sight of those righty desks.
Why is it that the school district does not supply proper desks and a conducive learning environment for its own students?
Kenneth,
Many of these projects are for schools in high poverty districts. The sad fact is that we as a nation care more about professional athletes than we do about the people educating our children. DonorsChoose.org was started by a young teacher in the Bronx who was frustrated with the lack of supplies he needed for his class. Every year teachers spend thousands of dollars out of their own pockets to buy materials for their classrooms.
As a teacher I want to say a special thanks for all you are doing for our classrooms. It means a great deal to have support from the outside. Thanks Mrs. Z
Thanks AT!!! You are awesome!
I just donated 5.00 for the above suggested project but ran across this one below while checking out the site...I am from Mississippi and there is a lack of exposure to the arts in these rural mississippi schools... trust me its hard times everywhere, but I can spare 5.00, and skip my starbucks coffee for one day this week, most people can afford to spend 5.00 to help another person and they know it! ;0)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=215015&zone=0