Feel-good Friday

UPDATE: The class reached their goal around 8 pm tonight! I know about $70 for sure came from our readers! And I bet some of the anonymous donors were probably you guys, too. THANK YOU!!!! You rock!! There is joy in 3rd grade tonight!!

This is Lucy. She is a totally cool, crazy 3rd grader. She’s also my life-long friend Lori’s daughter (if you ever read the comments here you will know Lori as a faithful commenter. You should also check out her new blog. You should also know tht I don’t remember life without her being in it AND she got married in Vegas at a drive-thru, with a coupon. And I didn’t even know she had a boyfriend. Awesome!)

So not only is Lucy cool, she also has a very cool 3rd grade teacher, Mr. Shaw, who has inspired his students to raise money to buy iPad minis, cases, and accessories to be used in small learning groups in their classroom. These kiddos and their teacher have raised $4,357.00 in just TWO months!! They’ve been using an online fundraising tool as well as collecting offline donations and raising money themselves through bakes sales, doing extra chores, and all sorts of other 3rd-grade entrepreneurial techniques. The kiddos are workin’ it – not just going door to door asking for cash.

But today is their deadline! And they are $643 measly bucks short of their goal.

I would really like to help them get there, and so Emily and I have already donated. Now I am looking to resurrect some of my $5 friends!! You guys helped out  by raising over $2,000 in ONE DAY when my friend E was battling cancer, because you’re amaaazing! And if you have $5 today, I’d love for you to help a bunch of 3rd graders see that hard work coupled with human kindness can make dreams come true and open new doors to learning.

You guys know how I feel about iPads for learning. I believe they are amazing classroom tools, particularly in special ed and therapy, but in small learning groups in a regular classroom, their power can be phenomenal! Kids learn in different ways. Having an iPad mini in the classroom will certainly level the playing field for some children who don’t learn as easily in traditional ways.

And there are SO many FREE educational apps and books available! To reach this goal would be amazing for this class.

So, if you have two minutes, and 5 bucks, click here and do something that will have an impact not only on these third graders but on all those third graders to follow them for years to come. I already feel that this effort is epic – let’s help complete this legacy that Lucy’s class will be leaving for the other students at their school, not just for themselves.

Click here and donate. :: hypnotic eyes::

And have a wonderful weekend! I’ll keep you posted on the total via Facebook!