Less than a year ago, 140 classrooms in Moore, Oklahoma were destroyed as a tornado tore through the city. Through the online charity, DonorsChoose.org, a generous $600,000 was donated in just 3 weeks to go towards rebuilding the schools and replacing teaching materials.
Four school children from Chicago: Caleb, Ian, Lyndon, and Peter, were among the individuals who donated. They decided to use their school entrepreneur challenge to raise money to help other school children in need. They set up a Lemonade stall and in total raised $105.
In a letter sent alongside their donation the children said “we sold 50 cups of lemonade. It was a lot of fun…we chose to give our money to DonorsChoose.org because we want to help the schools and people who were hurt in the tornado.”
DonorsChoose.org raises money for school projects in America and provides a platform for individuals to choose specifically where their money goes. The site allows any public school teacher to request materials their students need most. This can be anything from pencils, science equipment to technology.
Individuals can browse the requests and decide if there is one they would like to support. They can then choose how much to donate which can be as little as $1.
Since the charity began in 2000 it has received 1,000,000 individual donations for 180,000 teacher requests.
To learn more about the teachers and students impacted by the tornado in Moore, check out this video from DonorsChoose.org: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYnnvcJ0ilI
