A Better Place

Lauren Whittington, 3yr Pre-K

Our Saviour Lutheran Preschool and Kindergarten

$1,719.46

We are all familiar with the adage, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." What bigger purpose do we have than to bring young, scholarly souls closer to God? Please help Ms. Whittington by funding her dream of having a more cleanly, organized, beautiful, safe space to provide her students with. She is currently dealing with poor, outdated storage equipment that undermines classroom productivity and sometimes even causes injuries to her and her students. With your investment, Ms. Whittington will be able to establish a much more efficient organizational system that will not only increase the amount of learning being done but maintain the safety of her students as well.

Ms. Whittington explains, "The current storage I have in my room is stained and quite old. The cabinet we have has also given a few of my kids and myself splinters. Currently, I have two separate storage shelves on one side and a very old cabinet on our classroom back wall. I would love this rolling storage unit to replace the current three I am using. The ability to close it to use as a table and to easily move it from my classroom when we empty out our classrooms would be so helpful to me."

Safe Clean and all In-between New Desks are our Dream

Ashley Strong, Preschool and Kindergarten

St. Paul Lutheran School (Austin)

$2,000

As the world slowly readjusts to a new normal after such a treacherous pandemic, it has been difficult for schools and teachers to balance safety, closeness, and educating young children. Considering this, Ms. Strong wishes to purchase desks and chairs that will safely maximize the total capacity of students for each classroom. Choosing to fund this dream will allow this early childhood program to enroll more students, create a more organized environment, while still maintaining safety protocols.

Ms. Strong believes, "These desks will also allow children to have the proper sized work environments where they can engage in class. These desk and chair sets are specifically for this age group which will make writing, reading, and other class subjects easier for our students"

Please fund this dream and help Ms. Strong maximize space, maximize enrollment, and most importantly, maximize learning for her students!

All About Aesthetics: Our Learning Environment Matters!

Deana Spencer, Junior Kindergarten - JK,

Holy Family School

$1,647

Classrooms and school hallways filled with colorful pictures, artwork and essays are visually appealing, but also serve an important purpose in the school community. Displaying student work is important for communicating with parents, fostering community and helping students feel valued. From bulletin boards to display cases, students feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when they see their work displayed.

Ms. Spencer would love to enhance the Holy Family building aesthetics by showcasing children's artwork, displaying real photography of the photography club throughout the building and having floor and cushion seating throughout the building, especially in the classroom.

Support this dream, and help students feel a sense of school culture and pride when they see carefully crafted displays in their learning spaces!

Take a Seat

Matt Runge, K-8 Physical Education

St. James Lutheran School

$2,000

When it comes to high school athletics, there is an array of benefits for students who participate. Not only can it improve physical and emotional wellness, but there are also long-lasting skills such as teamwork and sportsmanship that develop for athletic students. Mr. Runge wants to ensure he is providing his student athletes with the best equipment possible so they can reap all of the benefits.

St. James is in the process of renovating the gym. Athletes currently use folding chairs as a bench. This dream would allow sports teams and the scorer's table volunteers to sit comfortably during the game in order to enhance the overall game experience.

Mr. Runge adds, "Having these chairs would provide our athletes with superior comfort during games, it would allow each athlete to feel a greater sense of school pride, and enhance the overall game experience."

Loving Literacy in the Saint Luke Library

Alison Pildner, Library

Saint Luke Academy

$1,106.45

Cultivating a love of reading and an appreciation of books is extremely important. Having a comfortable space for students to listen to stories can help keep young children engaged for longer. This is why Ms. Pildner has been working on making the Saint Luke's school library a fun and inviting place for the students. She has reorganized the books and created an online system for students to search for and borrow books each week.

She wishes to continue this work by adding a reading rug, as well as places to store big books and stickers for printing barcodes to make the check-out process easier and more efficient. A shelf for big books will allow teachers to more easily find stories that can be seen by all and a more efficient system for checking out books will encourage children to check out books to take home and read again and again.

Fund this dream and help Ms. Pildner to cultivate a love of reading in her students!

Mats for Matt

Matt Runge, K-8 Physical Education

St. James Lutheran School

$980.70

St. James has the great privilege of hosting a lot of games and is beginning to host more tournaments. With so much traffic, Mr. Runge wants to ensure that the gym stays in tip top shape and that the players stay safe. This is why he is asking for logo floor mats to cover the entryway into the gym, so that during winter months less snow is tracked in.

According to Mr. Runge, "Our fans sit right next to the court. When they come in with wet shoes, the court get wet and causes a slipping hazard for the players. Having these mats located in the hallway and entryway to the gym will lessen the amount of snow/water that is tracked into the gym."

Grant this wish and provide St. James students with safety, school spirit, and overall pride in the school!

One Classroom Many Purposes

Paula Raabe, Math, Grades 4-8

Pilgrim Lutheran School

$2,000

Ms. Raabe values fostering a classroom where students can easily work independently, collaboratively, or in a whole group. However, her current furniture makes it difficult to provide these opportunities. This is why her wish is to upgrade her classroom furniture. She would like to have flexible seating to allow for individual work or group work, along with safe technology power/charging capabilities.

Ms. Raabe believes, "Having some versatile seating would help to make all of this work more smoothly. Additionally, we are continually challenged with electrical power spots for charging Chromebooks, laptops, ipads, and phones. The Power Tower has one cord, and numerous AC and USB ports. The trapezoidal desks, with storage racks, can be used individually or positioned around the Power Tower."

Fund this dream and give this classroom a much needed upgrade!

Storage of a Lifetime

Heather Gunter, Early Learning

Concordia Day on Milwaukee

$1,721.55

Educators today are expected to fill many different roles, which is why teaching can be a challenging profession. The key to success in the field is a teacher's ability to organize herself, her classroom, and her students. Anything that saves time and assists with organization for teachers is a great help and allows for more time spent delivering instruction. This is why Ms. Gunter is asking for her dream of having outdoor storage in their playlot.

Ms. Gunter explains, "Unfortunately, we do not own our playlot, so we have to bring our toys, blocks, books, and balls outside and remember to bring them back inside. To assist the teachers in getting toys out, we would like to purchase an outdoor storage cart."

Fulfill this dream and allow teachers to simply enjoy taking the children outside to play without a hassle!"

AaAHhh, so Fresh and so Clean, Clean

Renque Portillo, PreK

Lutheran Day Nursery

$550

Water joins and unites the mind and body. According to research, it aids kids and young adults with "a desire to make goals and have a purpose." At Lutheran Day Nursery, the pre-kindergarten classroom is the only room which has NO water fountain. Every time a child needs water, the entire lesson is interrupted, the teacher has to call someone in the office to let them know that a child needs water and water is then brought up from the kitchen.

Ms. Portillo's dream is to reduce these distractions and provide her students with an in-classroom water fountain to keep them healthy and hydrated! Having every child hydrated will keep their brains functioning, thinking, focusing, energized and increase attention span. In turn, it will help enhance and enrich the "whole" child's development.

Grant this dream and provide this pre-kindergarten class with a deluxe top-loading water dispenser that will benefit both the flow of the classroom and the health of the children!