Ms. Treesh is an Indiana educator who wants to show students they already have the skills necessary to help others. "Our students learn personal finance concepts through a Dave Ramsey curriculum that encourages earning, saving, investing, and giving back," she said. "Being able to give back is a core value of our adaptation of the course."
A group of students from 6-12th grade participated in the project Taking it to the Streets: Hoops for the Homeless with the support of a Learning to Give mini-grant. Ms. Treesh incorporated aspects of the unit Philanthropy 101 Course of the Westminster Schools.
Each student was required to research a local nonprofit organization. As a class, they voted on which organization they were going to support through a service-learning project.
Students decided to raise funds, items, and awareness for a local charity. They planned a student versus teacher basketball game to raise money. Prizes were donated by local businesses and participants could purchase tickets to "chuck-a-duck" at halftime, as well as other raffles and concessions. The students raised over $1,400 and donated over 1,000 items for their selected charity.
"I felt that we had a successful project because we met our goals of earning money, collecting items, and raising awareness for Blessed Portion Ministries," said one student. Another said, "Personally, I felt it went extremely well, we hit our goals and had a lot of fun doing it."
As Ms. Treesh explained, without the grant the event would not have been nearly as successful. "Not only did it allow us to generate more money through concession sales, but the players t-shirts made a big difference in the culture of the basketball game. The whole event made giving back so much fun!"