Contest ’09: Deal
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on November 25, 2009 – 2:30 AM257 Comments
And awaaaaaay we go!
You can find the contest FAQ and the prizing page at the top righthand side, or by clicking these links; the baffled should click here for more information on Donors Choose and the contest.
Please make sure you’ve donated through the Bet Red/TN contest page; you can use the widget right up top there. To search/sort Bet Red projects by state, grade level, subject, or expiration, please use Amanda’s super-handy sortable spreadsheet. All links from the spreadsheet contain the Bet Red challenge ID; just click and go.
We’ve got a big nut to make, friends. Let’s do it.
On the menu for tomorrow: mini-prizes, and the unveiling of the mystery intern!
Share!
Tags: contests
There’s a nice thank-you posted for Ping Pong. Although, like some other posters, I sometimes dreaded PE, I’m now glad I got to have it.
Oh goodness. Can we make it to 75K today….just over 5k away now. Waiting for the challenge of the day. Big BOOKS was funded yesterday!! Way to go Team AWESOME
I just wanted to drop you a note to thank EVERYONE for donating to DonorsChoose. As a teacher, we rely on all the help we can get! I was browsing some friends proposals who live across the state from me and saw a recent donation from the Bet Red: Tomato Nation Contest. I had to find out more about this contest/group. Thanks for all you do…here’s hoping one of my proposals gets a donation from a great group like you out there doing good deeds for our nations children.
Keep up the good work!
Kim :+)
@kim. I would love to know about what projects you have on DC. It is great to hear from teachers that are on here and take the time to find out about groups that are supporting projects. email me at charmiejo@hotmail.com thanks for what you do!
At the time of my second donation, it was $99,900. I said screw it…I have the 100 in savings. I donated, refreshed the Tomato Nation website, and saw it as $100,149.
Way to go, folks!
Projects with less than $150 to go, some great thank you note possibilities.
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=303180&challengeid=23248 $134 (double your impact)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=292995&challengeid=23248 $129 (double your impact)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317981&challengeid=23248 $148
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=317981&challengeid=23248 $134
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=297018&challengeid=23248 $95 (double your impact)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=326091&challengeid=23248 $124 (double your impact)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=298380&challengeid=23248 $104 (double your impact)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=312632&challengeid=23248 $130 (double your impact)
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=313883&challengeid=23248 $136 (double your impact)
I am a parent of a public school student in Portland, OR and a supporter of Donor’s Choose (and a TN reader, natch). My child’s teacher listed a number of projects at Donor’s Choose that were too late to make Sar’s master list of projects. However, somewhere along the line, one of the projects (a desktop computer) came to the attention of TN readers and y’all pushed it over the top.
So, this is a HUGE thank you on behalf of a parent of a super-cool public school student. It takes a village, and I’m glad you’re part of mine.
I know I’m a little late to the party with today’s donation being my first, for an ESL class that needs board games/word games. Just want to say y’all are amazing. And it’s kind of a tip, [retroactive] for Sars for some solid, sane Vine advice 7 or 8 years ago.
Y’all, I may be a billion timezones away from the good old USA right now as sit in my freezing cold dorm room in China, but I have never been prouder to be a part of the ‘Nation’. I somehow managed to remain tears free this entire month, but seeing the donations jump to over $275,000 melted this heart of mine and I can’t blame the tears on pesky dust. You guys are AWESOME. I hate to say that when I saw the goal this year, I didn’t think we could do it. I will never doubt the generosity and tenacity of the Tomato Nation readership again.
Wooot! Everybody say yeah!
Dusty! It’s so – *snif* – dusty in here!
Whee! $301K. Okay, what’s next? I’m hoping my gift cards come in tonight, so I can toss them on this:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=279669&challengeid=23248. Some of that last 20K’s gonna land there, right?
Well done, Nation! Thank you to Amanda, Intern Indispensable! Yay, Asirda, HP, Mighty Big TARhead and all matchers and sponsors and generous donors. Go, Mr. K, Ms. E., and all those dedicated public school teachers – without you, there’d be no point at all! Three cheers for Sars, our fearless, peerless leader, Master Tomatohead, and all the little grape tomatoes everydamnwhere!
Break out the champagne! Unholster the Febreze! Pass me the dang tissues!
Wow. $301+. Wow. YAY!!!
I’m tapped out for now but I just saw this one — every kid should make a Mardi Gras masks at least once! I’m pimping this:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=294559&challengeid=23248
Last year Sars had a Roomba as a prize, and I shoulda gone for it, because CRIMINY THE DUST IN HERE, can’t see to type.
Love y’all, Nation!
@Sandman, I think what’s next is 50,000 students – we’re at 49,664 right now! Go Tomato Nation, go!
You guys are all heroes. It’s simply unbelievable what you’ve done in a few short weeks.
50,000+ students! *snif!* Damn dust…
snif!
Got the gift card and spent it all, but I don’t think I hit any of the specified TN projects. There was a note that the donation still got credited to TN challenge though.
What was the formula for the giftcards again? Mine was way more than I had expected.
The gift carding was insane! I was not expecting that much – I think that was a better match than I get on my 401k at work!
I just got my gift card in my email too! And it was for $20 …. and I was only able to donate $25 during the original contest. Since I’m stuck at work until 5, I will spend my afternoon picking out the perfect project for it.
AND HOLY COW!
Did I do the math correctly? 671 Funded Projects! mind-blowing.
I got mine too! I wasn’t sure how much to expect so it was a pleasant surprise.
92 projects left to be funded, and a total of 766 listed and helped by TomatoNation.
You guys completed something like 45 projects in a few days as of my update at around 5AM EST, and six and a half hours later you’ve already got four more.
I still owe you guys a love letter, I believe.
I got my gift card & in the process of spending it all, along with my monthly donation credits.
Anyone want to help me out with this one? http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=302774&challengeid=23248
This teacher wants to buy 360 of those black & white marble composition books that I definitely took for granted in school. Lets get it funded!
Woo-hoo, just spent my (surprisingly large) HP gift card and finished off a Bet Red project!
I got mine yesterday too, such a wonderful end to the day! I’d love to see this one get finished: ROBOTS!!
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=312772&challengeid=23248
I received my card yesterday & managed to hold onto it for a whole 25 minutes (while picking the right project) before spending the whole thing + the amount from my automatic monthly donation. I love checking back in every few hours to see how many more projects have been funded! It’s like October all over again!
Lauren, same here, on the amount. I was so excited! I didn’t think I’d get anything. I put it toward getting an oboe for a group of young musicians. The world needs some good oboists.
Just like the good ole days of obsessingly watching totals raise :)
Wow! My inbox just filled with 8 messages from DonorsChoose saying I had new donations to my project, which is the link above. I buzzed over to TomatoNation to see what inspired some many generous souls in such a short time.
This is amazing! Thanks a ton to all the donors and shanchan! My $3500 project is now less than $500 away from full funding.
Rock on, TomatoNation!
I’ve been having a crappy day. Re-reading all the comments in this thread, and seeing so many more projects get funded, has been exactly what I needed. :) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it agan: You guys rock!
Now, off to spend the rest of my workday picking a gift-card project.
Holy crap! My HP gift card is a lot more than I expected. Going to spend their money right now.
Composition books funded! (Hurray! I finally got to finish a project!)
The number of projects we have funded over the past two months is absolutely incredible! How ’bout some help to finish this one – there’s still over $1000 left to go, but it’s for some basic equipment for high school chemistry – as a former chemistry teacher and current chemical engineering student, I get how important it is for students to have hands-on experiments to see the principles they’re learning in action.
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=297558&challengeid=23248
Just knocked off two more projects (including the Robots!) thanks to HP. Gift card was a lot more than I expected. This is so much fun! Whee!
Woo-hoo!
My Robotics project just got completed! Almost $3000 worth of donations in 4 hours, all from Tomation Nation folk.
You guys rock! Keep up the good work!
Yeah dudes, i was only able to give $5 to the contest in October since I am so flat broke but wanted to at least participate, like I’ve done every year since 2004… and somehow my HP gift card is $10. What?!? Amazingness. ‘Tis the season to be jolly.
Wow! My HP gift card was for almost the same amount as my original donation! Woot! Go, Tomato Nation! What a great start to the ThanksGIVING Holiday. :)
And thanks again to you, Sarah, (and the awesome Asirda) for all your efforts in organizing this.
I spent my giving card on the last open Bet Red project in my state. I normally spread my donations around, but there is something thrilling about dropping a honkload of money on one good project.
I threw $35 from HP at the germ project. This was such a great year for the contest. I donated to two projects, won a big box of candy, got $35 extrabucks and got to fund one more project. This is fairly exciting. Happy Thanksgiving everyone & thank you HP!
I followed Natalie’s example and blew my entire HP money on one project – basically, I gave to the first project that needed exactly $375 – that polished off the gift card and the project in one fell swoop.
What to do if we donated through the TN page, but didn’t receive an HP card? Sadness…
@Sheryl: I assume you checked your spam filter (you can search the junk folder for the words “donors choose giving code”). If that doesn’t turn up anything, email zach at donorschoose dot org to make sure your donation was credited correctly to Bet Red.
The email came from Candice chesson (candice@donorschoose.org)
and subject said: Your donorschoose.org givingcode from HP is here! Hope this helps you find it.
I got my gift card from HP–yay! I found a project from my old elementary school that was just about that amount to fulfill, so even though it wasn’t on the Bet Red list I just went ahead and did it. (Hope it doesn’t mess up the final tally, but it just seemed like kismet!)
No sooner did I get my gc than I also received an email that the last of the projects I had suggested (Student Publishing Center) had been fully funded! Hooray team!
The list of open projects is so small now! I picked an art one for little kids due to my son’s love of painting.
I got my gift card while I was in Las Vegas for a little vacation, which prompted me to head to the closest roulette table and Bet Red. I won, natch. So, I’m adding those winnings to the HP money. Thanks again Sarah and Tomato Nation!