Dollar Project Helps Fund Booker Elementary School Field Trips

Field trips are meant to enrich students' lives and learning, and not all Sarasota students' families can afford to pay the cost of a bus ride and a ticket. One group of everyday heroes is out to change that with a dream.

“It’s a dream to make a difference in the lives of the children who attend  here in Sarasota,” Peg Buckley says. “If we could get every person who lives in Sarasota to donate $1 to that school, those children could go on field trips like children in other Sarasota schools do.”

It’s called The Dollar Project, and it spawned out of the generosity of a group called The Living Spiritual Elders Project, which is a group of Sarasota folks who, since 2006, try to leave a “lasting legacy for the children of at least seven generations into the future,” founder Meredith Jordan said.

The group started out with an initiative called The Red Purse where the accessory was left outside the Elders’ meeting space where people were free to put any amount of money they could spare into the purse to fund Booker Elementary’s children and food pantry, Jordan said.

This year The Red Purse is being earmarked for The Dollar Project after the group learned how some children can’t go on field trips because there’s simply no funding and teachers could no longer afford to donate out of pocket to send their students on a trip, Jordan said.

“It’s a dream to make a difference in the lives of the children who attend here in Sarasota. If we could get every person who lives in Sarasota to donate $1 to that school, those children could go on field trips like children in other Sarasota schools do.”

GENEROSITY AND NEED

There are more than 50 families, most with more than one child, at Booker Elementary who are homeless.

Additionally, more than 95 percent of the school’s population (525 students) is on the free/reduced fee lunch.

Village Gardens resident Sandra Lewis said her community’s been giving to support her neighbors Buckley and a Booker Elementary substitute teacher.

“It makes one’s heart very sad to know children are in need. Our community has adopted this school because of a teacher who lives in our condos, Roger Rinschler,” says Sandra Lewis, a Village Gardens resident.  “To begin with, he shared the great need for snacks for the children coming to school hungry.  This brought about a community response that so many of us have contributed to in a variety of ways; food drives, all kinds of fund raisers, clothing, quilts and Christmas stockings.”

When Buckley heard recently that many of the second graders were not going to be able to go on the field trip to the , she started asking people for a dollar donation to see if they could raise enough funds to make that happen.

Two weeks later, an elated Buckley walked into the school and handed over a $400 money order. And yes, because of that donation, all of the second graders were able to happily attend the circus. On her way back home Buckley collected an additional $5 from people who wanted to help.

That effort spurred Buckley to dream bigger. What if each Sarasota resident would give $1 to Booker Elementary School? What difference could be made in the lives of these children? The dream started taking shape.

After listening to Buckley’s vision, Booker Elementary’s Assistant Principal Marya Fairchild couldn’t say enough good things about Buckley, her neighbors and the Elders group.

The generosity that has come from them these past three years has made an incredible difference in these student’s lives, Fairchild said.

Fairchild went on to say that even though these challenges are every day realities for the children, Booker’s students are known far and wide as being some of the most studious, well-behaved and engaged. She said the recent trip to the Sailor Circus was a prime example.

Staff there complimented the school on how well behaved and interested the students were during the performance and invited them back next year, she said.

So, now that you know this, will you help with The Dollar Project for Booker Elementary School?

Would you donate $1 and help spread the word?

“We are all traveling this path together and it is incumbent upon us to help one another on this journey,” Buckley says. “These children are our future, let’s give them a chance.

Let's give them a dollar.”

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

These businesses have volunteered to host a jar for The Dollar Project:

, 1093 Central Avenue and is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm.

Phone: 362-0803.

, 5025 N. Tamiami Trail is open Monday - Thursday 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

If you are a local business that would like to be a drop off point, please contact Brenda Smoak at brendasmoak@@gmail.com to bring a jar designated for The Dollar Project.

RELATED STORY:

More Dollar Project Possibilities At Booker Elementary

You can find more articles from this ongoing series, “Dispatches: The Changing American Dream” from across the country at The Huffington Post.