- Joined
- Jan 14, 2012
- Messages
- 4,695
Hi All,
I just have to share a feel-good story that involves this magical Lilypad place that we love. As many of you know, I am a kindergarten teacher in Boston. I have been teaching for 18 years in my school, which was started by parent and community activists to serve mainly African American and Latino kids below the poverty level. Because of budget cuts, we've been barely getting by with one ancient computer and an old boom box for a listening center. We had counted on getting some new technology this summer but Boston Public Schools decided its bandwidth was too limited to handle any more requests for wireless devices so did not get the laptops we had been hoping for.
I got fed up and decided to try my hand at asking for help from friends so I started by reaching out on Facebook, asking for donations for four iPod shuffles to replace my listening center. Guess what? In less than two days, I had all four of them and one of them was donated by none other than our great leader herself: Laura!!
As she put it: "I love reading and I love kids, so it made sense." I was SO excited about having the new shuffles and flabbergasted that I was able to get them donated in under two days.
Wait, it gets better:
On the heels of my fantastic experience with the shuffles, I decided to take the time to write a proposal for a non-profit charity website that helps teachers called Donors Choose. I spent a few hours writing up a request for two iPad minis, to help support learning and research in my class. Yesterday, they accepted the proposal and it went live. In one day, I gathered ALL of the funds for the iPads! And guess what? Two of the donors are also from the Lilypad, although they are no longer active members of our community. One is Kelly Carothers, who used to help run the site, and the other is Angie Kovacs, who is a former Polly near and dear to my heart.
The thing that's so amazing to me is that I have never met Laura, Kelly or Angie in person. They have never met my students, either. And yet, they gave their money to support our learning community. What an amazing leap of faith. It is so inspiring to think that there are so many people out there that would give their hard-earned money to support my students. Makes it easier to get out of bed and drive to school in the morning. When those iPads arrive, we will say the name of each donor aloud and blow them a kiss.
Just thought I'd warm your heart and make you smile this fine evening.
Thank you, Laura and all the members for making this such a nurturing and loving site that folks would help each other out, across the country, without ever having met. Amazing.
p.s. If you're interested in having a look at my next project to get a few more iPads for my students, here's the link. And, if you donate in the next five days and enter "SPARK" in the code box, Donors Choose will double your gift!
Thanks for checking it out and/or passing it on to any friends who might be interested.
LINK
I just have to share a feel-good story that involves this magical Lilypad place that we love. As many of you know, I am a kindergarten teacher in Boston. I have been teaching for 18 years in my school, which was started by parent and community activists to serve mainly African American and Latino kids below the poverty level. Because of budget cuts, we've been barely getting by with one ancient computer and an old boom box for a listening center. We had counted on getting some new technology this summer but Boston Public Schools decided its bandwidth was too limited to handle any more requests for wireless devices so did not get the laptops we had been hoping for.
I got fed up and decided to try my hand at asking for help from friends so I started by reaching out on Facebook, asking for donations for four iPod shuffles to replace my listening center. Guess what? In less than two days, I had all four of them and one of them was donated by none other than our great leader herself: Laura!!
As she put it: "I love reading and I love kids, so it made sense." I was SO excited about having the new shuffles and flabbergasted that I was able to get them donated in under two days.Wait, it gets better:
On the heels of my fantastic experience with the shuffles, I decided to take the time to write a proposal for a non-profit charity website that helps teachers called Donors Choose. I spent a few hours writing up a request for two iPad minis, to help support learning and research in my class. Yesterday, they accepted the proposal and it went live. In one day, I gathered ALL of the funds for the iPads! And guess what? Two of the donors are also from the Lilypad, although they are no longer active members of our community. One is Kelly Carothers, who used to help run the site, and the other is Angie Kovacs, who is a former Polly near and dear to my heart.
The thing that's so amazing to me is that I have never met Laura, Kelly or Angie in person. They have never met my students, either. And yet, they gave their money to support our learning community. What an amazing leap of faith. It is so inspiring to think that there are so many people out there that would give their hard-earned money to support my students. Makes it easier to get out of bed and drive to school in the morning. When those iPads arrive, we will say the name of each donor aloud and blow them a kiss.
Just thought I'd warm your heart and make you smile this fine evening.
Thank you, Laura and all the members for making this such a nurturing and loving site that folks would help each other out, across the country, without ever having met. Amazing.p.s. If you're interested in having a look at my next project to get a few more iPads for my students, here's the link. And, if you donate in the next five days and enter "SPARK" in the code box, Donors Choose will double your gift!
Thanks for checking it out and/or passing it on to any friends who might be interested.
LINK
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