Donorschoose.org helps make projects a reality
Teachers can go online to find funding sources for special initiatives
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer
Acquiring funds for the extra projects that make a student's school life richer is possible if you know where to go.

Donorschoose.org is helping to make many teachers more productive in the classroom.Among those teachers is Tracey Corsano, a fifth-grade teacher at the Park Avenue Elementary School in Freehold Borough.

Donorschoose.org was on Corsano's list of organizations that grant wishes when she taught at P.S. 24 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Corsano received funds for 71 projects while she was teaching in New York.

Corsano brought her knowledge of the grant program with her when she came to the Freehold Borough School District and has already applied for and received funding for seven projects. The total of the donations she has received from Donorschoose.org is just under $28,000 since she began applying for grants with the organization in 2003.

Manalapan native Lauren Siciliano is the New Jersey state coordinator for Donorschoose.org. In an interview, Siciliano said she met with Park Avenue Elementary School Principal Joseph Jerabek and Freehold Learning Center elementary school Principal Donna Johnson to discuss how Donorschoose.org can help the borough's school district.

Siciliano said Donorschoose.org began in 2000 and was the brainchild of Charles Best, a social studies teacher in the Bronx, N.Y.

"He felt that if donors could give directly to individual projects, choosing exactly how the money would be spent, it would work," Siciliano explained.

The organization now serves the entire United States.

Siciliano said that in New Jersey, 340 school projects have been funded with more than $140,000. Nationally, the online donation program has provided $19.5 million for more than 45,000 school projects. More than 1 million students have been the beneficiaries of those projects.

Siciliano said people who are interested in supporting education can earmark their donation for a special project with Donorschoose.org. The online service allows a donor to choose by state, school, subject, grade and cost, the type of project they would like to fund. After approving the proposal and linking it with a school, Donorschoose.org buys the supplies for the project and ships them to the teacher.

Every shipment includes a disposable camera and thank-you cards so the students may thank the donor and let the donor see how the money was used.

Teachers may use the Donorschoose.org Web site to post a description and a wish list of supplies for a project. Donors who are searching for a project to support can view the project descriptions.

For example, a donor's interest in the arts made it possible for Corsano to make her proposal for "Arts Projects: Integrated and Ongoing" become a reality.

Corsano said she posted a proposal on Donorschoose.org that included a description of her students and their needs. She described the project and the supplies she needed.When a donor viewed that description, Corsano received the $532 worth of supplies she had asked for and the children were able to undertake the project.

On Feb. 14, Corsano's classroom was filled with a group of fifth-graders who were enjoying the use of the art supplies that had been donated through Donorschoose.org.

Mariano Mentle, 11, drew a colorful scene to complement the persuasive essay he wrote about why "kids" should be allowed to bring electronics to school.

Mariano said that "sometimes it's boring in school and with electronics, students can play video games against each other."

Stephanie Rojas, 11, painted before and after pictures of a person who smoked to go along with her essay about why smoking is bad. The "before" side showed a healthy person smoking a cigarette, the "after" side depicted a person in the hospital, ill with lung cancer.

Shannon McNulty, 11, Riccardo Torres, 10, Austin Fairchild, 11, and Roberto Albarran, 10, were some of the other youngsters who were making use of the donated art supplies.

Corsano currently has six other projects funded through Donorschoose.org, including a math project, where she received $152 for six sets of math cards; a math hands-on project that required pattern blocks, flash cards and dice at a cost of $506; a history project that includes books about world explorers at a cost of $647; a social studies project which provided her with $313 worth of National Geographic magazines and Time (magazine) for Kids; a writing workshop for authentic fiction and nonfiction literature for a craft study in writing and reading, with donations of $269; and a writing workshop to learn more about nonfiction books. The teacher requested two copies each of 23 nonfiction informational books for partnership reading. The cost of the project was $580.

Nicole Sabel, who teaches English as a Second Language to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders at the Freehold Learning Center, received a grant to help her students become better readers. Her project "Traductores" will provide six electronic translators at a cost of $194 for her new English learners.

Mary Aschenbach, who teaches second grade at the Freehold Learning Center, requested and received a set of Read Together Take-Home Packs, with books that students can take home and read with their family. The cost was $516.

A proposal at the Pine Brook School in Manalapan was funded and 25 new books were added to a classroom library. According to the grant proposal, students had already exhausted their classroom library. The proposal requested and received $295 worth of new materials.

Donorschoose.org has been featured on several television shows and in national publications, according to Siciliano.

Jerabek said he is pleased that teachers have a new way to acquire supplemental materials for special projects that support the students' educational achievements