Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday and were able to relax.
As the holidays end and we enter this new year, we are called upon to assist the community of Newtown, Conn. in its rebuilding efforts. This week, a coalition of education leaders joined in announcing the creation of a donation website, DonorsChoose.org/Newtown, dedicated to supporting the classroom efforts of teachers in Newtown. You can make a contribution of any size to offer as a holiday gift to Newtown’s educators and, through them, to the district’s students.
Visit DonorsChoose.org/Newtown and see how you can help.
Contributions received through DonorsChoose.org/Newtown will give Newtown teachers the ability to design and fund classroom-specific projects and to buy needed materials—for example, books and shelves for a reading nook, art supplies for a mosaic, seeds and soil for a memorial garden, or other teacher-generated projects. The money raised will be divided equally among teachers in Newtown. Each teacher can use his or her allocated funds to purchase classroom materials or fund a classroom-specific project.
Although the road to recovery will be long, we know that the children, educators and community of Newtown will move forward. This partnership with DonorsChoose.org allows Americans across the country to share in the healing process by lending a helping hand where it is needed most. In this season that usually fills children and adults of all ages with joy and hope, the AFT is pleased to be part of the healing process for the people and schools of Newtown.