Sunday, November 22, 2009

How can you help?

(Guest post by Jaremy's favorite Aunt Katie)

I'm sure that many of you have been reading this blog and wondering what you can do to help. Well, we have the answer. As Jaremy has mentioned previously on this blog, this school is located in the lowest performing school district in the lowest performing state in the nation. Most of his students come from the poorest of circumstances and hope for much better. They can not afford to buy their own supplies, and when Jaremy supplies them they don't seem to make it back to class. I am currently organizing a few different groups that are putting together supply kits for each one of Jaremy's students (130 total) and was hoping we could get all of you, Jaremy's friends, involved. I have talked to Jaremy and identified the basic supplies needed to help him teach these students better. We are going to put the supplies together into kits that will stay in the class room for use there. Our hope is that this project will not only supply the kids with things they need to learn, but also show them that there are people out there that care about their success.

(my kids, Max and Afton, holding a completed school kit)

We have already put together a few kits and found that each one costs about $10.00. My hope is that every one of you will sponser 1 student by donating enough money to purchase the supplies for 1 kit. I know that money is tight for most of us, but think of what you could give up this month in order to help with this project: 1 lunch at Cafe Rio, one night out at the movies, I'm sure we can all think of one thing we can skip this month. I know, I'm starting to sound like one of those infomercials 'for the cost of just one cup of coffee a day you can feed an entire village'. We have done this as a family and have already completed 25 kits and hope to do another 60-70 this Thanksgiving weekend. But that still isn't enough. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could make up the difference with a little help from Jaremy's friends?

So, if you feel like you can help out there are 2 ways we can do this: You can send me the money and I will purchase the supplies for you, or you can contact me and I'll give you a detailed list of what needs to be in the kit (it is very important that the kits be exactly the same) and you can get them to me. You are welcome to do more than 1 kit if you'd like. This would be a great FHE tomorrow night! Or maybe you know of a group or family that is looking for a place to make a donation. We really want to have them all done by next weekend so Jaremy can take them back with him after Thanksgiving. That isn't a lot of time so if you can help contact me asap! If you live in the Utah County area you are welcome to join us assembling kits on the 28th at noon at Jaremy's house. It's gonna be a blast so I hope you will all help out as you can.

(our family after completing 29 kits on Saturday)

Thank you all so much for your continued support of Jaremy!!

Love,
Aunt Katie
kthigbee@yahoo.com

PS. It would be great if all of Jaremy's friends could post a link to this on FB and twitter so that friends that aren't aware of this blog can be directed to it... let's make sure everyone has a chance to get involved. We can certainly use all the help we can get!

UPDATE: I have set up a paypal account that you can donate through if you would like. I'm new to paypal, but I think you just select the 'send money' tab and then enter my email address (kthigbee@yahoo.com) and the amount, be sure to mark it as a gift so there won't be any fees, and send it. Should be pretty simple. Let me know if you do this so I can make sure it comes through. Thanks everyone... we are up to 80 kits!! Only 50 more to go!!

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