Friday, April 18, 2008

Or this

Why am I up so early? Excitement from all the good things happening on this blog? Or was that an earthquake I felt shaking my bed this morning??

Last night, I received an email from someone offering to donate a practically new Dell Latitude d620. My initial thought was, yes! But I quickly wondered about all the donations. Initially, the donor suggested I see what you all think.

Then, she emailed back with these suggestions: "I'm from chicago and am currently here because my dad just passed away from complications due to MS. If there's a conundrum regarding the $$ donated, why don't you take the laptop and donate the dollars to the illinois MS society? Or go to donorschoose.org and pick a school project to donate it to? or keep it and offer your kids incentives for performance?"

Any thoughts?

(If you're new to this discussion, just scroll down through the last couple of days of posts ...)

14 comments:

teacherman said...

OK, so it WAS an earthquake. Weird, it didn't feel like the ones I experienced when living in Japan. Even mild ones over there felt somehow violent. A couple of times I even heard the ground moving. That was a little unnerving. This was more of a gentle sway back and forth a few times. Kinda liked it. The weird thing was the way my cat reacted to it. She hopped into bed and curled up really close to me and started purring, sort of like she needed a hug. (Sigh. Maybe I'm the one that needs a hug.)

Anyway, since there are earthquakes in Chicago, maybe it's no big deal that I'm moving to California ...

Anonymous said...

I haven't donated yet but here is an idea. Give D the Dell and have him decide how to spend the money. From donorschoose or another charity site. Could make a good learning experience about passing on good fortune.

-Chicago reader

Anonymous said...

At first I thought those who donated might be disappointed that their money didn't go directly toward getting D that new computer...but "anonymous" above has a great idea!

Anonymous said...

I was just going to leave a message basically saying the same thing as anonymous did. I think it would be great to let D choose where the money is used through donorschoose.org.

One good deed deserves another.

Happy Friday!

teacherman said...

I like the idea, too, but I'd really love to hear from people who donated.

I'm off to work and probably won't check comments until 4 p.m. or so. (I try never to log-in during school hours, because a. I barely ever have free time and b. I don't want anyone to ever say I'm blogging when I'm at work, getting paid the big bucks.)

Thanks again to everyone!

And Happy Friday to all!

Anonymous said...

I think having D. involved in deciding what to do with the rest is a great idea. Maybe there are other students at the school that can use the help.

Lass. said...

I think letting the kids pick a nonprofit is a great idea, but I do fundraising for nonprofits so I have a little bias in that area. :)

Anonymous said...

Totally agree - have D pick the cause. Maybe there's an issue close to his own heart that he wants to give to.

-Tony

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone else too--explain what went down to D and allow him to decide on where the cash goes--what a cool teaching/learning experience!

Although I'd consider maybe spending some of the $$ on insurance--Safeware is a company that insures laptops (but that's not a plug in any way--I just googled the question and found them).

Such great peeps follow your blog!

Anonymous said...

I donated a little bit of money and I still stick with my earlier comment of letting D choose where the money should go through donorschoose.com. Or he could choose somewhere close to his heart like actualmalice said.

Amber P.

Anonymous said...

Read Friday morning news in the 299blog!

http://catalyst-chicago.org/RUSSO/

Anonymous said...

I think letting D decide would be great. He's still young, so he may not have had the chance to help others like this. It could be a great learning opportunity for him.

My only request would be that it directly benefit other young people.

Shawn Matson said...

I think it would be cool if it stayed in the community or your school somehow.

I think laptop insurance is a really excellent idea. I think D should come up with something that will benefit his education, after all we were raising it with D in mind.

Historygrl said...

Another option would be to do the laptop insurance, have him donate to the school or a local charity, but also maybe get himself a printer. Those things come in mighty handy in college. Or even invest in Office suite software if it doesn't come with the Dell.