Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
My life needs more fingerpainting
Last year, M E-L turned me on to DonorsChoose.org (ah, and I see he’s promoting them with another challenge!), a charitable foundation that fixes up mini philanthropists with worthy causes. I donated some $$ to buy paints for an inner city 1st Grade class. Today, I received a nice packet from the teacher: a thank you letter from her, several photos, and thank you notes from the kids, too.
Funniest note was this one:
Daer Dr. Hoffman,
We make butfull pants our class make a boch of pickchrs togetr. thank you
You’re welcome. I’ve been told I have butfull pants, too.
The most perplexing note was this one:
Dear Dr. Hoffman Iieew gg goukoohoam
miBhftihciemusie
HirecwetegoActee
teieteegigmom
Um . . . wow! That’s great! Keep up the good work.
If DonorsChoose.org is trying to encourage repeat donations, it’s working. I want to give again. I noticed that on M E-L’s challenge page (linked above), there’s an untouched challenge to buy a bunch of kids their own copies of To Kill A Mockingbird. That one’s tempting. (No, you don’t have to donate the whole sum.) And that one to help struggling readers with graphic novels — do you suppose they would let me choose the graphic novels? (Almost anything by Alan Moore — who’s with me on this?) But I think I’ll let Karen look this one over to help me decide.
Kudos to a very cool organization. Check ’em out.
D.
Thanks for the shout-out! I’m glad you liked the thank-you package.
I’m with you on the Alan Moore (let’s buy “Lost Girls” for the kiddies!). However it looks like the teacher is asking for “Bone” (?) and some Japanese stuff. Still, any comics is better than none…
Owl pellets? Intriguing to see that this is one of the popular search terms on DonorsChoose.
My husband funded one of these projects ($50 for students studying French in Anacostia, DC to go to La Madeline and experience French cuisine) and found the whole experience very positive. Microphilanthropy is one of the perfect uses of the Internet. Of course it does take a somewhat savvy person to place a request and then another level to make it appealing. On the other end of the scale, one can also donate to The Global Fund and UNHCR on-line. No need to pick and choose – just trust the experts! Financially I’m a mutual fund investor and trust the experts, but for charity it’s more fun to pick the projects. Guess it’s because I don’t care as much if I pick something that isn’t a winner…
Anyway, bravo!
What a great idea. Love the funny comment from that first kid.
Bone is a graphic novel series published by Scholastic Books. I haven’t read any of it, but my son loved the first 3 issues…
Actually, Scholastic is trying to sponsor more graphic novel series for the very reasons listed in the linked challenge. They just launched their 2nd graphic novel series a couple of months ago.
Ha. Loved the thank you note and the picture. Off to check out the site.