A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a very cool conference sponsored by  Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Most people have heard of Build-A-Bear. But not everyone knows that the organization was founded and is headquartered in St. Louis. Meeting the Build-A-Bear peeps was quite a treat. And we bloggers learned quite a bit about their organization. Like how active they are within the community. And how Bear Exec Maxine Clark is a HUGE believer in empowering as well as supporting adults AND kids who work hard to improve their communities. That was around the time the Build-A-Bear peeps passed out $25 giving cards for us from www.DonorsChoose.org.

The premise of DonorsChoose is simple. Teachers can post project requests. Donors see the request and can choose which project they’d like to fund.

How cool is that?!?

Thousands of kids in public schools are helped by this project each week. And that’s a great thing. Especially since teachers often pay for project materials out of pocket. When I learned that years ago from my sister-in-law who’s a teacher, I almost fell over.

(That doesn’t seem fair at all! And it is why I often give the teacher a gift card at the beginning of the year as well as one throughout the year. Hopefully it can help offset those expenses. Because let’s face it. If you are a teacher you need your money for things like booze. Or at least I would.)    

I’d never heard of this program until the conference. It was easy to find a school (and grateful teacher) who had an inspirational project to fund. You can find schools in every state and almost every school district. Start by picking a state and what types of projects you hope to fun. (Or even what town.) There’s a write-up on each project, how much is needed and even photos of smiling kids.

I found a cool project in a school within St. Louis city. They needed some art supplies for the wee kids.  (You can support projects for kids of all ages.) I found that fitting. Maxine Clark was able to grow a business based on a dream, loads of creativity and a great deal of hard work. Here’s hoping these kids will be able to do that too!

Thanks Build-A-Bear! I’ll definitely be visiting  you guys as well as DonorsChoose.org again soon!