What Would You Do?

What would you do if you won $5,000?

Now what if you had to use all of that money to help others?

And what if all of it had to go toward helping teachers in public schools?

I ask this not because I'm really all that keen to hear your answers (sorry), but because it happened. To me. Yes, thanks to Bing Rewards I won FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, all of which had to be spent on DonorsChoose. DonorsChoose.org is a website where public school teachers can post projects and request materials for their classrooms and anyone can donate to them. I had found this site a year or two ago, and my sister who teaches second grade at high poverty school back in Georgia has posted a few projects, which have been funded in various ways. When I won this, I was so excited to call her up, and I told her to post a few more!

I apparently only had a limited time to use the money, or else DonorsChoose would pick random projects to fund. I posted on Facebook to see if my friends had projects. I gave to friends, friends of friends, people on  internet message boards, and a handful of completely random strangers. I went through all the places I've lived before and picked projects to fund in each. There were none listed for any schools I have actually attended, so I picked some others in my hometown. And then I gave my sister-in-law very large gift card for the site at Christmas. I think she got an iPad for the Special Ed. kids she teaches, and I'm sure it will be a great tool for them.

For most of the projects, I gave as "Anonymous Donor," and I'm pretty sure the recipients saw me as:

But I felt more like:

I've won some cool stuff in the past, even blogged about one of the best ones here, but I think this one tops them all. It was so fun helping all of those classrooms!