With Donors Choose, teachers tell you what they need and why they need it, in their own words.
The first project that I supported was to purchase books for a high-poverty school in Northern California. All this teacher wanted was real books for his class, rather than much-used photocopied pages of outdated material. As he said:
"Many have gotten too used to a lack of resources for them. It may seem like a small thing, but just having the book to hold in your hand is a big deal for many of my kids. Let alone it being a book they are quite interested in."
In his proposal, the teacher tells the story of a student who learned to read in his high school class -- a student who named his newborn son after one of the characters in the book. For me, it's unacceptable that any child in the United States be unable to read well enough to succeed. But this teacher's story speaks to the dedication of our educators and to the fact that it's never too late to change lives.
I funded the teacher's project in full because I was so moved by his plea for help. What I didn't expect was the outpouring of gratitude from the students; they were so stunned that a stranger would help them, it actually sparked a conversation in their class about how they could in turn "pay it forward." That's when I realized that my contribution went beyond mere financial support; I had given them emotional support as well.
I believe literacy is the most basic skill that empowers a person to succeed, and so the projects on my Giving Page all have to do with promoting literacy in high-poverty classrooms around America.
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Impact has created a widget whereby you can directly donate to one of Livia McRee's projects. Go to our article on Livia McRee to read about these projects and make a contribution.