The beginnings of a plan

As you may have read in my last post...my church handed out money to each family that was in attendance a few Sundays ago. My family got an evelope with $40 in it. Our mission was to try to find some way to use the money to help our community in what they would hope to be a meaningful and sustainable way. This was about a month ago...enter life, school, baby...and as you can imagine the grand ideas that were rushing through my head when I first received the money soon got overtaken by what to make for dinner and trying to figure out the sixth grade math homework that Alix brought home.

This past week at church they read a couple of the ways people had "spent" their money. One teacher put it toward a fund for her more needy students to help them buy sketch books for their projects. Another family sent it to their local school district to help fund field trips for kids in need. It reminded me that not only had I not followed up with my plan, but honestly I didn't even remember where I had put the money. I decided that if I verbalized my plan in a public forum (like here!) I would be forced to follow through...so here I go...my plan...

I began by thinking about what was most important to me, and the rest of my family. Of course the first thing I thought of was education. I am a firm believer in life-long education. And yet, when I ask my students how many are thinking about college I at most get a hand or two. Almost all of my students would be the first in their family to go to college, or for that matter to undertake any educational pursuit past high school, so there is no example set for them. As a matter of fact one of the biggest challenges I face is the fact that education is not a priority for a lot of my families. Many have probably had bad experiences with education, or their lives are in such turmoil, that they come to parenthood without knowledge of how to help their students with academics, or the willingness to do so. So...I have always been impressed when I run across parents who are going to school at night and speak of the example they hope they are setting for their students. I hear parents mention that they hope their fourth graders watch them do homework, go to class, and strive for success...all in hopes of creating a better future for their families. They hope the example they are setting is a powerful one for their students...and I'm sure it is! I also imagine how hard it must be for them...many of extremely limited budgets...to find the funding to make continued education on any level a real possibility. I want to support this example. I think it is a powerful gift to their children, and will be one step toward their student wanting to follow the same path of making education a priority in their life. OK, now for serious, I am ready to share my plan...

I want to take the $40 and buy gifts for a gift basket--perhaps a Blockbuster card, some candy, sodas, maybe a board game. How will that help you ask? Good question. I hope to sell raffle tickets ($1 each) for a drawing for this basket. I have hopes that if every family in my school bought even one ticket we would raise several hundred dollars for a scholarship fund. The money we made would go to a parent of one of our school's students to help support their ongoing education. Heck, what if my church let me sell tickets? What if I could get my sister's school to sell tickets? What if friends and family members jumped on board and bought tickets? Together we could turn $40 in hundreds...but more importantly we could impact a family in a very meaningful way. Why would anyone do this for someone in a community they don't even live in? Because one day my students might be your neighbor...or pass you when walking down the street...or serve you lunch...and I can almost guarantee you that the person they will become after seeing their parents reaching for the stars and bettering themselves, is a much better person than who you might meet if they had to watch their parents live a life without meaning and hope. To make the scholarship sustainable, I will take out the first $40 and set it aside for next years basket, the rest will go directly to one of the parent applicants in our school community who requests funds for ongoing education needs.

So, what will really happen with this? I guess God only knows...only time will tell. But I can dream big...and even if I only raise $50, I know it will go toward a good cause...a cause that will pay dividends for their family for many years to come.

Now to put the plan into action...stay tuned...