Weymouth Schools Use Donation Website to Fund Projects

A 3rd grade science class at Academy Primary recently received equipment to help students explore and experiment. At Weymouth High School, a 9th grade history book club received 30 copies of an historical novel.

Both funding requests – $202 for the laboratory activity tubs and $218 for Laurie Anderson‘s Fever 1793 – were fulfilled within a month, not through official school department channels, but by way of an education support system existing purely online.

With the help of DonorsChoose.org, a non-profit created a decade ago by a Bronx high school teacher to directly connect donors with classrooms, and a push from the school newsletter, Mrs. Tuplin's and Mrs. Buell's students were quickly performing hands-on experiments and learning about Philadelphia's yellow fever epidemic.

Rachel Files, a 3rd grade teacher at Nash, also received funding through DonorsChoose for her project, "Help Increase Our Reading Fluency!"

There are hundreds of funding requests from across the country on the website. Donors can search by topics such as location, grade, type of resource and urgency. Their contributions go directly to the classroom and costs are laid out transparently in donor reports, complete with pictures of the projects and thank you notes.

There are not currently any Weymouth projects on the site, but Elizabeth Harris, the school department's community liaison, encourages teachers to sign up.

"I will be monitoring submissions to help promote requests," Harris wrote in a recent email. "The two projects listed in the last Weymouth Pride Newsletter were both funded by the 2nd day of the article's release. So, if you have a great idea for a project or supplies that you need to help your classroom to be successful, this is a great opportunity for you!!!"

Mike Letorney of Horace Mann Insurance has agreed to complete funding for Weymouth projects when they get down to $200 or less, Harris said.

Visit www.donorschoose.org for more information or to start a project fundraiser.