Choose A ProjectOk, maybe it wasn’t exactly the Pony Express, but how many of our students can say that they had their DonorsChoose.org materials delivered via Stagecoach? Well, the students at Lincoln Elementary School in Salt Lake City can –courtesy of Wells Fargo and the George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation (our leadership partners in Utah).
On March 18th, DonorsChoose.org held its first media event in Utah to celebrate the fact that DonorsChoose.org is available to every public school teacher in Utah and that individuals in 41 states have come together to donate over $100,000 to almost 10,000 Utah students. The DonorsChoose.org team (including Charles Best, Founder & CEO), Spencer Eccles, Lisa Eccles, several members of the George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation staff, the Wells Fargo team along with Joanne Milner, SL Mayor’s Educational Liaison and Mike Williams, Director SL School District Education Foundation, were all in attendance.
Media turnout was impressive – the event was picked up on every major television station in Salt Lake City (CBS, NBC & ABC) as well as the local NPR station and a few Spanish language channels (Charles even did an entire interview in Spanish) and we were also covered in several local newspapers, including the Deseret News.
Wells Fargo had one of its beautiful stagecoaches (pictured below) shipped in for this event and let students at Lincoln Elementary (along with a few adults) take a ride. Media captured Charles Best delivering resources to Ms. Paul’s classroom via stage coach. Charles then made a presentation to the classroom and the media outlets present. Ms. Paul and her students demonstrated how they have been using the many resources they have received through DonorsChoose.org and they discussed the impact that DonorsChoose.org has already had on their classroom and school. Finally, the event was capped off with Lisa Eccles and Charles Best handing students boxes of resources purchased via DonorsChoose.org.
The only disappointment was that Charles didn’t have cowboy boots and we couldn’t get him to yell “yee-haw” while riding the stagecoach. Oh well, I guess you can take the boy out of NY…..”
If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to receive new posts via email or RSS!
Hey, Hylan,
It was a wonderful event, wasn’t it! The kids are still talking about it. And we finally had time to pass out the books and really start using them. I appreciate your team and the kindness and sensitivity they showed our students. Donors Choose is such an excellent resource. I’m already working on my next request.
Cheers,
Julianne in Salt Lake City.
Comment by Julianne Paul — Apr 17, 2008 @ 4:59am