I know several people out there are looking to get their tax-deductible donations in before the end of the of the year. I’d like to take a moment out to remind our readers that there are some great ocean science educational projects on our Oceans in the Classroom Donor’s Choose page. You can see the tremendous success the ocean blogging community has had in our sidebar. We’ve impacted over 1180 students and the real number is MUCH MORE than that since most of the materials can be reused several times. Additionally, our community has completely funded 12 projects and raised over $4700!! Let’s push it up over $5000 before year’s end.
We have two great ocean projects up there right now that need only a little support. Remember, your donation is tax-deductible and goes to help the most important cause – improving education in impoverished schools in OUR OWN COUNTRY. We might be one of the wealthiest nations, but that hasn’t trickled down to many of our schools.
1) “Bring the oceans to our Midwest classroom!” will fund ocean science activities for 80 first graders at a high poverty school in Minnesota. These students will learn about sharks from an experienced aquarium educator in an assembly. It is these experiences that cement a sense of wonder for our oceans. Being as landlocked and (literally) snowed in as possible in Minnesota, these children do not have the opportunity to learn this intimately otherwise, unless you give them this experience! This project only need $195 to complete it.
2) “Oceans of Learning” seeks out to build an awesome library of books, music CDs, toys, puzzles and art supplies for project-based learning. This project will impact 22 kindergarteners from a moderate poverty school in Texas immediately, but the materials can all be reused each semester potentially impacting hundreds of students over the lifetime of the supplies. Mrs. G needs $528 and has been waiting since September to get this project funded! Let’s make the oceans a reality for her students!
As an incentive, if you make a donation between now and when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve AND leave a comment here I will send you a random ocean or marine invertebrate book from my personal collection.
D’oh! didn’t check the time, Hopefully it’s PST?
I used my Birthday givingCard. Donor’s choose seems like they have great sponsors who can do things like the this (they send you a $25 card for your birthday, which you can use to support any of the programs).