Teachers fall short on website fundraising effort but many positives, including donations, came from project

Decorahnews.com has been following the last stages of website fundraising efforts by John Cline teachers Amy Winter and Linda Hemesath. Their fundraising efforts, via www.donorschoose.org, fell short this past week as the deadline for project donations passed without enough contributions to fulfill project monetary goals.

Winter had been hoping for a carpet that could be used a learning tool, and Hemesath sought funds for a document camera. Donors.choose.org is a national fundraising site that allows donors to pick specific classroom projects and donate online.  Although about 70 percent of projects are funded, and previous projects in the Decorah Schools have been funded, these projects fell short. Winter and Hemesath are not too disappointed, however. They say the effort has been very validating for them as teachers, with lots of reinforcement from friends, and families of past and present students. They received contributions from tourists who had visited Decorah, and from unknown parties.  Although they thought the projects may not have reached goal because of the dollar amounts, they said they purposely did not want to engage in a lot of solicitation with family and friends. The website classifies projects according to "poverty rankings" and it could be that random donors to the website would direct contributions toward school projects in more poverty stricken areas.

Winter and Hemesath will receive some monetary rewards from the project because donors can choose their funds to be directed in the form of classroom gift cards to the teachers if the projects do not reach goal.  But they also believe their efforts draw attention to the common, everyday needs, of teachers in our country.

Superintendent Mike Haluska, in speaking of such projects, noted that budgets continually run tight.  "This is an avenue to pursue, much like grants, that allow classroom purchases that go above and beyond what the District would ordinarily be able to supply."