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Home » Donors Choose and Contests

Save The Day: April 15

Submitted by on April 15, 2011 – 9:12 AM26 Comments

1:45 PM update

$91,176 — we’ll get to 95K in no time! Please consider celebrating Ukiah’s birthday with a donation today; the link to his Giving Page is below.

And now, a little halfway-mark love…

You guys, I’m so proud of you. So proud of you. Sometimes, doing the day-to-day administration of the contest, answering emails, updating spreadsheets, I don’t make time to step back and admire the bigger picture you have all painted — almost a hundred thousand dollars in just two weeks. Other times, describing to a friend or someone I’ve just met what’s going on, what you’ve done, how many times you’ve done it, I end up trailing off mid-sentence with tears climbing my throat. Almost a hundred grand in two weeks. What an amazing hopeful thing that is! What amazing hopeful things you are. Congratulations, seriously.

If you’d like to congratulate yourself with a $15 Barnes & Noble gift card, well, I don’t blame you a bit. It’s donated by the DonorsChoose.org Action Squadron, and you could win it if you forward me your receipts until midnight ET tonight. Have you donated at any time today, to any project on the leaderboard? Forward that receipt.

Not sure what to donate to? Check the spreadsheet; peep Ukiah’s page, below; or polish off a graphic-novels project in Missouri!

9:15 AM update

Great day in the morning, TGIF, etc., because we’re at $90,091! Look at y’all go.

If you could keep going on behalf of reader Tylia G., I’d love it. She’s the force behind the Ukiah’s Heart Giving Page, and she’d like to tell you about it:

April is a difficult month for me. I both lost my son and had him in the same month. He was born on April 15th, 2008 and he passed on April 5, 2010, ten days shy of his second birthday. I’m writing to see if you could feature my Giving Page on the 15th, in honor of my son’s birthday. The Giving Page is named after him, after all.

It would be a beautifully special tribute to my little guy and I would be even more indebted to you than I already am.

In addition to an adorable photo of the birthday boy in his secret-identity attire (“all hail Aqua Rooster, Savior of Bath Toys!”), the Ukiah’s Heart page features a bunch of neat and helpful projects, like a light-table kit, a trampoline, and a request for calculators that a couple of y’all can probably polish off in no time.

Happy birthday, kid. The rest of y’all, there’s a match lurking at 95K. We’ll toast to absent friends when we get there; let’s go.

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26 Comments »

  • AnnD says:

    Fire! Fire! 2 projects expire in 10 hours & 7 more over the next 3 days. HELP! SAVE ME!

    The Amazing Grace Fund donated to 42 projects last night on the Fire! Fire!, Jeopardy <$50 & Pets4Kids giving pages. Most of those projects are now less than $35 to complete. Please help fund them today!

    NEWS FLASH! The Tomato Nation has helped fund many FL & TN projects over the last 15 days. They are starting to PAY IT FORWARD by donating to projects with various gift codes. THANK YOU! We need all the help we can get!

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    Derp! We’re at $90,479. Get it, Nation!

  • Jana says:

    Today is my birthday, and my coworkers gave me funds to donate to the contest. I am so pleased to be able to use them for a project on the Ukiah’s Heart Giving Page.

  • Emma says:

    I seem to halfway recall a link from years past where you could redeem unused gift cards to apply to Donor’s Choose. Am I remembering correctly, or did I hallucinate that? And if it was a real site, does anybody know if it still exists or where it can be found?

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @Emma, try this: http://www.plasticjungle.com/

  • Tylia says:

    Aqua Lion, Sars. Aqua Lion. Yes it looked like a rooster but it really was a lion I swear!

  • Tylia says:

    And also, thank you to all the wonderful people who donated. I’m kind of tearing up right now.

    As Sars puts it. “I luv you guysh.”

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    Just as good. “The roar OF JUSTICE!” (I love those hooded towels. Master Stupidhead had a duckie for a while; so cute.)

  • Friend says:

    C’mon Nation!! I’m itching to get the match donated today!!

  • Omar G. says:

    Calculators – knocked out!

  • Charmaine says:

    Yeah for the calculators, what is next stability balls, maybe a trampoline?

    For every funded project off of Tylias (Ukaih’s) or mine “You Say To-ma-to; I Say Tom-ah-to” today, another $10 will find it’s way to the leaderboard tomorrow.

    So far we have 4 funded and I believe 1 for Ukiah’s page. That is another $ 50. Go nation.

    Will post a total in the comments tomorrow morning.

  • Jennifer M. says:

    Halfway through the month and I’m halfway through my goal to donate to a project in every state plus DC. Unfortunately none of the giving pages list any projects for Wyoming. . .

  • AnnD says:

    Fire! Fire! CALLING ALL FIREMAN… We have a FOUR ALARM blaze happening in a Delaware SPECIAL ED 3rd grade classroom. IT WILL EXPIRE IN THREE HOURS if we don’t all join in a raise $97! This is the closest we have ever come to losing one….PLEASE HELP….FIRE!!!!

    The AMAZING GRACE FUND will come in a donate more fund on the FIRE! FIRE!, PETS4KIDS and/or JEOPARDY <$50 if we complete SIX MORE PROJECTS TODAY!! We have over 15 projects between $20 – $37 on these three sites. LEND A HAND and a few $$$$'s too. They put money on 42 yesterday. LET'S BRING 'EM HOME!!

  • Emma says:

    @Sars: Thank you! That’s exactly what I was looking for.

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @Jennifer: I made sure at kickoff that we had projects from each state represented, but the WY projects may have gotten finished already. Feel free to hunt one up and send it.

  • AnnD says:

    Fire! Fire! A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HELPED TODAY, ESPECIALLY TO MICHAEL FROM NY! You know why!

    The Amazing Grace Fund just donated to 14 projects on the Fire! Fire!, Jeopardy <$50 and Pets4Kids giving pages. There are now 22 projects between $17-$37 that can be completed! Please help today if at all possible! THANK YOU!

  • ps says:

    Where is the Tomato Nation “official” giving page that lists the projects? I’d like to donate to that one rather than create my own giving page (or to someone else’s). I’m a little confused by the TN DC page.

  • Charmaine says:

    @Jennifer, wow I had no idea Wyoming was so under represented. I had one earlier but it is gone and with further investigation, there are only 7 total projects for Wyoming on DC right now. I have added 3, two that are first time teachers and one because I love Roald Dahl books
    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=553432&challengeid=155170
    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=509698&challengeid=155170
    http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=558924&challengeid=155170

  • Charmaine says:

    In response to the below message I posted yesterday!
    Ukaih’s giving page funded 4 projects and the To-ma-to, Tom-ah-to page funded 8 which means another $120 to the leaderboard today.

    For every funded project off of Tylias (Ukaih’s) or mine “You Say To-ma-to; I Say Tom-ah-to” today, another $10 will find it’s way to the leaderboard tomorrow.

    So far we have 4 funded and I believe 1 for Ukiah’s page. That is another $ 50. Go nation.

    Will post a total in the comments tomorrow morning.

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @ps: The TN Superpage is here: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=136864

    If you would like to look at a spreadsheet listing all the projects in a sortable fashion, it’s here: http://tinyurl.com/3mvlb28

  • Debby Guardino says:

    Happy Saturday Tomato Nation! I have a few projects on my “Growing A Victory Garden – For Our Nation’s Tiniest Tomatoes” Giving Page that need some help before they expire. Please consider helping these first time teachers…”It’s Game Time” and “Encouraging Early Literacy”. Also, I will be offering Olive Garden Restaurant Gift Cards on Tues. so stayed tuned to Tomato Nation for all the details. I am a teacher from Chesapeake VA, who is trying to get every project that was posted when the campaign started April 1, funded for my school district. I am more than half way there!

  • Roger says:

    FIRE! FIRE! 4 projects are due to expire in the next TWO days. HELP! PLEASE! Many more projects are set to expire in a few more days. The Davis-Ramsey PAY IT FORWARD Fund will donate $100 to this giving page if other donors will complete 6 FIRE! FIRE! projects. There are 7 projects listed for less than $50 to fund. What a GREAT WAY to help others! YOU CAN DO IT!

  • AnnD says:

    The AMAZING GRACE FUND has donated to 27 projects since last night on the FIRE! FIRE!, T-NATION JEOPARDY <$50, and PETS4KIDS giving pages. Most of those projects are now LESS THAN $35 to complete. Check them out & FINISH ONE OFF! BE A HERO TO CHILD TODAY!

    To our FL & TN friends who are PAYING IT FORWARD by supporting our projects with gift cards WE GREATLY APPRECIATE IT!!!

  • Tylia says:

    Yesterday, as a means of celebrating my son’s birthday, my husband and I went to San Francisco, took in a museum, had a great lunch, ate THE BEST CREAM PUFFS in the world (Pacific Puffs on Union, You da bomb) and just spent the day remembering but celebrating our son. We had allot to do, so I didn’t check the totals until just now. You guys blew my mind. This couldn’t have been a more fitting tribute for him. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart. This meant the world to me.

    Yesterday Sars called my son the aqua lion of justice. This was more or less apt. I have this t-shirt of his that I framed once we lost him. It had this teenie-tiny superhero fighting this huge monster. I always felt that was apt, as I feel it is with most kids with special needs. They are constantly fighting these huge invisible monsters we can’t see. Yesterday, you helped a bunch of kids fight that fight. Just like my son, you are all super heroes in my book. You don’t need a cape and tights, you just need a couple of bucks and some heart. And you guys have that in spades. Thank you again.

  • Jennifer M. says:

    @Charmaine and Sars – thanks for adding the Wyoming projects!

  • Dana says:

    I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone involved with the Save The Day: Donors Choose project. As a teacher, it means so much to see so many people raising money and helping to fund projects. Since my project was posted on the Contest Page I have had 4 donations come from Tomato Nation and 1 from You Say To-ma-to, I say Tom-ah-to. As of today, my project only needs $143.00 until it’s fully funded! and it’s because of efforts of all involved with Tomato Nation. Thank You!

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