I find it interesting to note how we name different days and how such labels morph over time. As an example, the term “Black Friday” is well-known as the day after Thanksgiving, which marks the beginning of the holiday shopping spree. In recent years, this terminology has expanded to include ‘Small Business Saturday’ (a day to shop locally) and ‘Cyber Monday’ for online shopping.
I wasn’t spending much time thinking about these shopping days as I don’t like shopping—so therefore don’t wait with baited breath to fight my way into a store on any specific day—but these naming conventions came up at a recent Gateway Education Foundation Board meeting. “Giving Tuesday” was mentioned as part of the litany, referring to the Tuesday following Thanksgiving—November 29th this year. Since 2012, Giving Tuesday has been a national online campaign to kick off the end-of-year ‘charity’ season (tax savings anyone?). Understandably, Giving Tuesday was relevant to the Foundation, which survives on donations in order to provide additional support to Gateway students, classrooms and schools.
Since the Gateway Education Foundation (GEF) started its “Funds for Learning Program” in the 2012-13 school year, it has funded 51 teacher-led projects in the district totaling $31,605. These funds have been awarded to projects in each school, across multiple content areas (literacy, science, technology, engineering, history, performing and visual arts, wellness/school climate, college/career, foreign language and even a motivational speaker for students!). If you’ve followed local newspapers or Gateway’s weekly e-newsletter Breaking News, you know that GEF funded a visit from storyteller Diane Edgecomb (kicking off this year’s reading challenge at Littleville and Chester); the purchase of 20 tuners for the Gateway bands; an improvisation seminar for high school singers; the engineering design project on insulating container homes for the 6th grade, and last week’s visit from Mariachi band El Son de Mi Tierra to middle school and high school Spanish students: and those are just the projects that have taken place since September!
As the number of regular donors to the Foundation has grown GEF has been able to increase the number and size of awards given to enhance student experiences with 4 projects in FY’13 growing to 15 in FY’16. With a dedicated board of community and staff members, the Foundation hopes to continue to grow and has a long-term goal of establishing an endowment fund for even greater viability over time.
While there are many ways to contribute to the Foundation, Giving Tuesday is the next opportunity to help! The online giving platform RAZOO is waiving its fees on Giving Tuesday, making this an outstanding time to donate!
As you consider the great work the Foundation has done to date, we hope you will consider donating to the Gateway Education Foundation on Giving Tuesday this year, as we all begin enjoying the Holiday Season. Those interested can go to the “Donate” page of the GEF Website (www.GatewayEducationFoundation.org) and click for pay pal (the yellow button) or credit card donations (the blue button). GEF also has QR codes on their website that you can scan with your smart phone, and links on the Gateway website (www.grsd.org) and social media.
