“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.
From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.
Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.
Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.
The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!
Note: ALL donors to the contest received gift certificates for $100 from Donors Choose to apply to the projects of your choice. If you didn’t receive one, you should have, so please check your junk mail — especially those of you who may have had issues with the receipts during the contest (Hotmail users, et al.). Enjoy!
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a lonely girl in possession of a library card must be in want of a twin. The child who spends a lot of time in books also spends …
Dear Sars,
Welcome back! Dear cracking dry hands season, not so much. I’m here to ask you/the readers about a product I could swear I saw mentioned on the Vine ages ago, but I can’t find …
Spent mine this morning! (I actually managed to find a project that needed exactly $100 more to reach fulfillment, so I was happy.
Also, I’m assuming the gift certificates are the product of some sort of anonymous donor-type person or organization, and if you total the 1099 donors of Tomato Nation each getting one, that means that we’re donating an ADDITIONAL $109,900.
How awesome is that?!
Wait–so the approx. 1100 donors each got the gift certificates? THAT IS TOO FREAKIN’ COOL. Because by that math, then the impact of our fundraising was then doubled?!? (Am I doing the math right?) That is incredible!
Still nothing in any folder. Should I email you or them?
Them. I didn’t even know these were coming, so I wouldn’t know what to tell you in any case, I’m afraid.
Awesome to the Nth power. It absolutely made my day.
It was fantastic to finish funding a project with some free money. Whee!
Other that donated got coupons too. I donated via science blogs (sorry, TN, but I figured my science blogs needed more love than you). I got $100 too, and I’m trying to figure out where to best donate my cert :-)
This means that between the 6apart gift cert ($30), this cert, and my own donations, I’ll have donated $180 to Donors Choose so far this year!
How ridiculously awesome is DC? Or whoever has donated the money to Donors Choose donate to us to donate back to Donor’s Choose? That sounded less complicated when I first thought it. Anyway, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I just got this feedback from the project I fulfilled with my cool gift certificate, but I think it belongs to everyone here (especially Sars and her cats): “I cannot thank you enough for making a difference in the lives of my students. It takes a special and unique person (like you) to make dreams become realities. Because of your generosity not only will these children now have the opportunity to work on their social studies skills but you have raised their self-esteem and self-worth to the highest. My students are so used to being let down by those around them that I can see how overjoyed they are that someone has done something so special for them. On behalf of the students of East New York and I, thank you for making a difference and God bless you!”
Awesome. I donated my $100 to a school in my city that needed basic supplies (don’t even get me started on how some school districts don’t even supply basic things like pens and paper for inner city schools where kids can’t always afford even those things). It makes me feel good all over again, so yay, Donor’s Choose and Sars!
In the same e-mail bag I got fired and got this certificate. It felt good to be able to do something productive, you know, unlike my job.
This was so great. I was able to find a project that needed exactly $100 and was even from my home state. The awesomeness just keeps rolling along!
Mine got used on a program to supply rocks to an earth science class:
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=103679&zone=103
Because geology rocks!
That was so cool of them. Spent mine locally as soon as I got it!!!
I didn’t get one in my email box. Hopefully I didn’t accidentally delete it from my junk mail before I saw this post, but I’ve kept my eye open since then.
I don’t know if they were giving these to people outside of the USA who donated via PayPal, but I thought I would check with you just in case, because that’s how I donated.
Keep up the awesomeness, everyone!
This was such a fantastic donation by someone with big $$. What a great opportunity to give to a local school. I’m a librarian in Phoenix, and I was able to donate books on American History to a very poor school in town. Yay!
If you donated via PayPal, they won’t have any record of you, I don’t think. I can inquire as to the possibility of getting gift certificates for the PayPal donors, but it may not happen.
No worries then, Sars. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing out on giving them some more $$. Thanks!
Mine went toward sewing machines. What can I say, I’m a sewing geek. But seriously, the gift certificate was far beyond a “matching donation” in my case. Whoever funded them has a case of the terminal awesomeness going as well.
I was thrilled to get the gift certificate. What an amazing idea! I’m so impressed with whoever thought of this, giving (maybe) 1,000’s people the opportunity to direct his/her/their contribution. I also spent locally, an elementary school in my neighborhood that wanted new books.
I just realized that when I went to spend my last $25 in Philanthropy Credits, I accidentally used my VISA instead of the credits. Alas. Oh well, I had the money available, and was able to redirect that final gifted $25 towards yet another project. At least I didn’t make that mistake with the full $100.
Caught Fox News in the Doctor’s office this morning. They mentioned Donor’s Chose and how Claire Danes was donating to it. I kept waiting for them to mention the clearly AWESOME folks of Tomato Nation, but alas they didn’t. I was sad.
I just have to say how awesome it was to get this. I did a local search and found a high school in my area to help. I’m a social worker and many of our clients are high school drop outs, so anything that encourages kids to stay interested in school is a plus for me.
One good deed really does lead to another!
Three cheers (or 100,000 if you’re yelly) to DC for the follow-up Who Needs a Hunnert Dollahs or Less? THEY DO! email today-ish! I poked around in the beautifully tailored list, found a class in the highly needy category because such is the way in which I roll, discovered that it was sciency and techy AND would otherwise expire on my birthday–HELLO, SO VERY FOR ME–and with no actual expenditure on my part, I made some dreamz come troo! Thanks, Mystery Moneyhuman!
So there’s a chance our newspaper will do a story on the expansion of Donors Choose to my state (Connecticut). One of the teachers they might interview got funding completed by one of these gift certificates. Cross your fingers for propagating the awesome! If the article publishes, I’ll let you all know.
Yay, the Hartford Courant ran the article on Christmas Eve. Double yay, Arielle Levin Becker did a really nice job with it. Thanks to Anonymous Mystery MoneyHuman, Donors Choose gets some free publicity.
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-donorschoose.artdec24,0,2740306.story