Cluster A Community Challenge

Feedback from our donations!!

2006-12-10T17:40:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

I just received some feedback from one of the classroom projects we funded through Donors Choose. A bunch of kids in the Bronx can now learn new skills using their shiny new laptop. They’re going to use it to put music to photos, record video and even prepare presentations! The funny thing is that for some reason they’re very excited about Powerpoint…

I attach the pictures so you can see the kids with our present. Also, I have copied verbatim a couple of their thank-you letters (there are more if you want to read them):

Dear Our Secret Donor:

It must be pretty hard giving such an expensive gift and not telling anyone. Mrs. Kehoe has been trying to get laptops (not Apples because our resources can’t be used with them) for three years. She’s so funny because she calls politians (sic) like they are her next door neighbors. Finally someone heard.

I guarantee that the classes are going to use this laptop to do all kinds of things. We can’t wait.

Thank you and God Bless You

Joanna Huang

Dear Donors Choose Surprise Santa:

We are so excited. We have a few laptops but they don’t work with our online resources. Our librarian wants to show us how to make Power Points, put music to pictures, download and burn disks.

She brings in her computer but that’s not enough. We can’t believe this because she spent so many years trying to get laptops. Now it’s going to be very exciting when each class gets to do their own projects and use the pictures in their project. That is awesome. Thank you very much. I am thankful for you.

Thank you,

Public School projects we can fund

2006-09-28T15:49:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone

As I mentioned on a previous message, during this Community Service month we’ll be trying to complete the funding for two promising projects proposals in two New York schools. We will raise some money with the party at the end of the month but that won’t be enough to gather the $5000 needed. For that we’ll have to tap into our wider network and ask our former co-workers, our families and friends or any other source we can think of. We’re cash-strapped students but have plenty of resources! Of course, you can donate money directly too.

So I wanted to briefly introduce you to the projects, you’ll see that our help can be very valuable. Ctrl+Click on the titles if you want to read more about them:

Authentically Bridging the Digital Divide: A class in the Bronx with a big proportion of immigrants needs an HP laptop to help the kids learn about technology, English language and a variety of other topics. We all know how important our laptops are as learning tools. Let’s get one for these kids too!

Help Inner City Kids Leap Into Learning: This proposal coming from Brooklyn wants to purchase a learning system to help the kids (grades 3-5) learn to read properly. Those kids do not have any help at home so this system would benefit them by fostering their love of reading and books. After all the case readings we’re doing, we’ve got to sympathize with them!

Both proposals come from schools where more than 90% of kids come from poor families and qualify for government-paid free lunch. If we manage to fund them, we will get pictures of the kids using our sponsored tools and we could even go visit them later on.

All we have to do is direct enough people to the Challenge Page (http://www.donorschoose.org/donors.php?action=view_proposal&id=5157&cid=319) and we will make this happen. We will come back with a template email that can be easily forwarded to lots of people, but please start contacting your network now, we only have a month to complete the challenge! You can also copy and paste the picture below, making sure you use the link to the challenge. Finally, you can also direct people to our challenge blog at http://cluster-a.blogspot.com

Let’s show some kind cluster spirit!

david

Welcome to Cluster A Community Challenge!

2006-09-17T13:47:00.000-04:00

As you all know already, Cluster A rocks. Now we have to prove the point by competing like a team in the Cluster Cup. And the first big challenge is to have a bigger and more positive impact in our community than any other cluster.

That's not going to be easy but we're going to achieve it anyway. We have the most talent, why would CBS have given us an A grade before taking any exam? And we will keep the alpha position no matter what.

We are all outstanding students that value education for what it's worth (you can ask the bank for the exact figure). We believe it's a fruitful investment that we carry along for the rest of our lives. And it worries us that some people in our community may not be getting a decent opportunity early on in their academic careers.
So I propose we focus our Community Service Challenge into impacting the educational prospects of as many kids as we can. And how are we going to do that? We have a secret weapon, we'll be using help from Donors Choose (click here to learn about them).

I have created a Challenge on their website. There you can see a number of projects that we could fund with the money we raise. We should then spread the word around and use our personal networks to get a bunch of money. The cause is worthy and by helping these kids we'll also win the challenge. So start asking people nicely about this, include the link in your own blogs or email signatures and tell everyone you know!

I have only selected a few projects, please feel free to propose others that appeal to you. Just browse their website and let me know what you'd like to include. Also, we can change anything we want in this blog and the Challenge, like the total amount of money to raise and other things. Just send me an email or leave a comment here.

Please please make any suggestions you may have, this is our effort and we should all feel involved. Any ideas on how to raise more funding, including corporate, will be more than welcome. Whenever you want to share something with the whole cluster and our audience, just send your thoughts to david_delser.clustera@blogger.com and they'll be posted here automatically.

Let's start raising money now so we can sponsor the largest amount of projects! When the judgest see the pictures that the kids send back, I'm sure we'll just run over any other cluster!

Viva Cluster A!!!!
David