Save The Day: April 30
12:02 AM update
…$154,136. 1,374 donors. 138,709 students reached.
Day: saved.
3:30 PM update
$150,497. Way to go, Legion of Awesome. [bowing deeply] I couldn’t be prouder or more impressed. Congratulations.
10 AM update
So, listen. I set the goal at 250K, which I don’t regret doing, and none of us should regret anything; here’s why. Back in 2009, we got about 130K from Hewlett Packard, and we didn’t have that to work with this time. We had super-generous match donors along the way — and we had you, $1 and $10 and $100 at a time, chipping away at it every day, finding a way to get it done. 1,333 of you, as of this writing, have helped 134,671 students across the country in just 30 days. (Oh, yeah — and we had an extra day last time, too.) I know you know how amazing that is, and what great work you’ve done and sacrifices you’ve made of your time and cash. I just wanted to get out in front of any “oh boo, we didn’t make the goal,” because the goal is to band together and try to fix a problem, and you did the HELL out of that.
…Again. Who says there aren’t any superpowers in the world today?
150K is a nice round number, so let’s shoot for that today. I’ll still bring someone a beverage, because I like driving around, and also I like you guys.
Last 14 hours, Nation. Alabama could use our help, or you can pick another project from the spreadsheet. Any forwarded receipt today is eligible for a $25 Amazon gift card, so donate and send me your receipts by midnight ET.
Tags: you can't spell "readers" without "rad"
On this last day of awesomeness, I have updated the under $100 projects one last time http://tomatohelper.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/projects-with-less-than-100-to-go/ maybe picture dictionaries that has 2 days left and $61 or Building Fluency Literacy with 6 days and $69. You will find them on this list!!!
Or maybe a teacher that has their first project funded, you will find that http://tomatohelper.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/never-before-funded-teachers-help-them-get-their-1st-project-funded/
This nation is awesome!!!!!
Phenomenal effort, TN! $150K that will directly help wonderful Teachers and Students throughout the country…AMAZING!
Last day $100 Mini-Prizes Reminder:
For the home stretch, ANY DONATION made to “Great Projects that deserve a look…” Giving Page will automatically be entered to win a $25 gift card! No need to forward your receipt.
A total of 4 WINNERS will be randomly selected from EVERY DONATION made to the “Great Projects…” GP on Friday and Saturday.
• $100 as (4) Mini-prizes: $25 gift cards for Lowe’s, Best Buy, Amazon OR Walmart. YOUR CHOICE!
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“Great Projects…” GP:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=105201&max=50
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THANK YOU to all that have participated! YOU ARE SIMPLY AMAZING!
A month ago I had never heard of the Tomato Nation and now I am a lifelong fan!
FIRE! FIRE! Help or we will EXPIRE! giving page is full of projects due to expire in the coming days and other great ones for you to check out. The projects start at $19 to complete! The ones set to expire today were completed this AM. THANK YOU!!!
T-Nation Jeopardy: Projects <$50 ($60 today) had 45 projects from all giving pages on the TN leaderboard and the DC site. You can BE A HERO TO A CHILD and SAVE THE DAY in very little time on this page!If you love to get the THANK YOU notes then this is the place for you!
We are going to keep the FIRE! FIRE! and Jeopardy pages active after today too. So many classrooms have been helped we dont want to stop! They may move to the new DC COMMUNITY page in the future!
I would like to thank Sarah for all that she has done for Donors Choose – BRAVO! I know my giving page “Growing A Victory Garden – For Our Nation’s Tiniest Tomatoes” did not raise as much some of the others on the Leader Board, but I feel proud that I tried to fund as many projects as I could for my school district and raise awareness right here in my hometown. I never dreamed of raising over $10,000 on my own with the generous support of so many wonderful donors around the country. I wish I could have funded every project posted on April 1 in Chesapeake, but 2/3 were funded and for that I am very proud. I am still hoping some of the businesses I contacted will come through even after the contest ends. A special thanks to my friends Eric and Tori…you guys constantly got the word out and helped in so many ways. All You Need Is Love…to change the world. Blessing.
THANK you, Sarah!!! THANK you, Charmaine!!! This has been a wonderful experience! Can’t wait for next year!!!
Sincerely,
A teacher/donor/recipient
Sarah, I see a bouquet of margaritas in your very near future after all of this! You are a total rock star! Thank you Tomato Nation!!!
If anyone wants to help get closer to the 150K goal, I’ve got just the project to do it! This project will help get materials for students who are in need of academic interventions. It has ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE donors!!!! That’s 135 people who believe in this project! But it still has a looooong way to go to get full funding. Tomato Nation, in this last day of promotion, CAN YOU HELP? :-)
At least take a look:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=540906&challengeid=159390
Thank you for EVERYTHING!!!
Thanks for the great contest!! I’m sorry i couldnt get more done on my page to help out but it was great to see how much you guys can raise!!Way to go!!
If anyone still wants to contribute these wonderful teachers would be grateful for any donations :0 Thanks!!
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/viewChallenge.html?id=161391&category=241&max=50
I see that AmyG helped support knitting through my giving page. Thank you, AmyG!
My two open projects still have quite a while before they expire, so I’ll keep chipping away at them even after April is gone. I’m stubborn that way; maybe that’s my superpower!
Good job, TN, good job all around.
ALOHA! I am sitting in the Honolulu airport and just updated the FIRE! FIRE! Help or we will Expire & Jeopardy <$60 giving pages. GREAT JOB SO FAR this morning completing projects! FIRE! FIRE! has 30+ new EXPIRING projects loaded. 1 project will expire in 6 HOURS! HELP! The Jeopardy page added 7 new projects that had new funds added today. CHECK THEM OUT!
Please consider the Alabama page and any projects for Mississippi. The entire region was stomped so flat that I can’t believe there isn’t more coverage (I mean, there is coverage, but the whole royal wedding keeps getting in the way and throwing fairy dust around). I donated 100.00 to the Red Cross yesterday and I’m going to give what I can to Alabama today, because goals can be met or not, but The Legion Of Awesome is FOREVER.
3,000 in 5 1/2 hours? Awesome, Nation. Just awesome. Putting in my last ditch donation now!
5:00pm – $152,000 and going strong! Congratulations Sarah!!!
Aloha from KONA…I just updated the FIRE! FIRE! and Jeopardy <$60 giving pages. YOU GUYS ARE ROCKING THE HOUSE! Keep up the great work and I will check back in later and UPDATE it again for all the WEST COAST supporters!
THANK YOU…THANK YOU…THANK YOU…or as they say here, "MAHALO!"
I would like to thank Sarah, Charmaine and Ellie once again for their leadership, energy and efforts during this campaign! My students and I are eternally grateful!
http://www.donorschoose/damon.qualls
Mr. Q.
I made a bet that I would donate if the Yanks won last night. They lost but why should kids suffer because the Yankees suck? (Plus, they won today.) So I ended with a bang and finished http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=521815 and http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=568375.
Thanks, Nation and Sars, for inspiring me by your superior awesomeness. What say we do it again next year??
I wanted to make a donation, but kept telling myself “no, you just can’t do it this year. You haven’t worked full-time in 18 months, you don’t have a steady stream of income, you just can’t.” And then today, I booked a freelance gig that’s only for one day, but I figured if I can make $150 bucks sitting around for 5 hours maybe I can do something for these kids… Lo and behold, the first thing I see on the TN Jeopardy page is a project that only needed $12 to be fully funded.
So I figured it was like pre-emptively giving up 12 bottles of Diet Coke over the next year. And hopefully by the time the next challenge rolls around, I’ll have a kickass new job and I’ll be able to give more than $12.
The Caps lost last night so I might as well finish some DC projects to cheer myself up. Thanks, as always, Sars and company, for giving us this opportunity to do good.
@Ellen – you’re awesome. Here’s to you!
Sarah,
Thank you so much for all that you have done for so many public school students and teachers around the country. Thank you just does not seem enough. This is my first Tomato Nation Campaign and I was so pleased to raise over $10,000 on my Victory Garden Giving Page. I think even more than the money and donations you helped bring teachers and donors together in an exciting…crazy kind of way…who knew a tomato could be a catalyst for educational change! I wear my TN Save the Day shirt around town proudly and know the experience I had this time will help me bring in even more money for Donors Choose in the future…and that’s what it’s all about…and along the way having some crazy fun and cool prizes. I will continue to work to try to fund all the projects on my page now that the garden is in full bloom! Thanks again…it has been one thrill after another!
@Kristen from Jenkintown, PA. Congratulations! You won the dvd set of Friday Night Lights for donating to Tomatoes to the Rescue. Could you possibly contact Sarah with your mailing information so I can get them out to you?
Thanks, Sarah and the TN for all you have done and continue to do for students and teachers. My students are very aware of the opportunities that come to them because of Donors Choose, but they have no idea of the awesomeness of the Tomato Nation that helps fund those Donors Choose projects. It’s so heartening as a teacher to receive this kind of support in a time of teacher-bashing. My students are loving their new stage combat weapons!
What an AMAZING RIDE that was in APRIL for all the supporters of the Tomato Nation “SAVE THE DAY” campaign! We heard about the TN from other major donors to DC in late March and thought we would check it out. We have been helping teachers and schools for years however this was a new opportunity to do it as part of a group. It was our hope to help as many classrooms as possible, by making it as easy as possible, for donors to stop by and support a project. It was a fantastic experience and we intend to keep the FIRE! FIRE! Help or we will Expire! and the Jeopardy <$60 giving pages going. We look forward to seeing you all NEXT YEAR, or perhaps, helping one of your classrooms along the way. ALL THE BEST! SAVE THE DAY! BE A HERO TO A CHILD!