The University City foundation EdUCate!, which supports the community’s five public schools, received notice during the first week of November that a UC family will match every donation, dollar for dollar, that the organization receives through Jan. 1, 2007, in its Dollar A Day campaign.
“They would like to remain anonymous because they want it to be a community effort,” said Elaine Hanson, EdUCate! president, of the family. “They don’t want it to be about them, they want it to be about the schools.”
The organization’s goal is to gather $200,000 from fund-raising efforts such as Taste of the Triangle, which took place last week and gave residents a chance to sample dishes from community restaurants.
EdUCate! has already received $80,000, not including money raised from last week’s event, since the onset of the campaign in September, according to Hanson.
Money will be used to provide teachers at all five public schools with document cameras, or projectors, which have been shown to be effective and fun learning tools, according to several teachers in UC who already use them in their classrooms.
“In the last two or three years, there have been a handful of teachers who have recognized the value of these and have been leaders in demonstrating the value of this equipment,” Hanson said. “They invite anyone into their classroom to see the amount of excitement generated by these with the kids. They gave a demonstration to [EdUCate!’s] board of directors and we all came out with our jaws just dropped — they are so useful.”
The projectors allow teachers to display any written work, as well as other teaching tools and internet sources, without using transparency sheets required by less modern projectors.
“All five of our schools are behind in technology,” Hanson said. “Our schools and our kids are just as important and we need to have that technology. Our kids deserve and our teachers deserve these technological upgrades.”
EdUCate! plans to continue purchasing and implementing document projectors into classrooms as money becomes available until each teacher is equipped with the new technology, according to Hanson.
The foundation, however, feels obligated to utilize the UC family’s pledge to double any donation that comes in before Jan. 1 in order to meet its goal, Hanson said.
“We are really, really trying to get students’ parents and the community to invest in schools, and we have committed that 100 percent of these funds will go to the schools this year,” she said. “All these Dollar-A-Day funds go directly into the schools. We’ve committed to that. Everything counts — we just want people to make a commitment.”
EdUCate! has been supporting public University City Schools for 13 years. Hanson has been the foundation president for two years.
For more information, contact Hanson at president@uced
ucate.org. To learn more about EdUCate or to make a donation, visit www.uc-educate.org.