Back-to-School Philanthropy Goes Chic

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

The sidewalk outside P.S. 6 was quiet at 5 o’clock on a recent evening — with the exception of an idling school bus parked on a block lined with co-op buildings and townhouses. While the bus was an unusual sight at this hour, even more unusual were the passengers boarding it: retired men and women, many of whom hadn’t set foot on a school bus for more than 50 years.

They had come, without bookbags or lunchboxes, for a ride downtown to Stuyvesant High School, where later they’d stand on line in the cafeteria for dinner. There were speeches for the honorees, but no pop quizzes.

The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the nonprofit Learning Leaders, which trains and places volunteers in New York City public schools. With 14,000 volunteers working in 960 schools, the program is a hub for parents’ engagement in their childrens’ education.

Sitting alone in the fourth row of green vinyl seats was Mary Ellen Fahs, 74, who rode the bus to school in Long Island — when it was all potato fields — but preferred to walk, in which case, her dog, Skipper, liked to follow and wait outside. One row up were Betsy and Henry Moulton, parents of the television food star Sara Moulton, who’ll be starting a new show, “Sara’s Weeknight Meals,” on public television this spring.

Realizing the years of parenting and school volunteering experience assembled, this reporter asked, “What makes a good volunteer?”

“The main thing is empathy,” an honorary trustee, Mary Heller, said. “It’s about liking the kids, being non judgmental and supportive, and encouraging them to get interested.”

* * *

Actress Claire Danes was in a classroom yesterday morning at the High School for Environmental Studies. To her right was a large chalkboard and mural about amphibians; to her left, a windowsill lined with globes perched on plastic pedestals, and a poster with the title, “What does the Earth’s interior look like?”

Ms. Danes had gone back to school to talk about why she supports the nonprofit DonorsChoose.org, a Web site that connects donors with school projects that need funding. For example, a teacher in Alaska submitted a request for a color printer so children could make books in color, and a teacher on Rikers Island submitted a request for graphite pencils that cannot be used as stabbing instruments, for her inmate pupils.

Ms. Danes has funded more than 50 projects.

“I myself am a product of the New York City school system,” Ms. Danes said. “I didn’t realize how limited resources were until I found myself in a private school.”

Dalton had carpeting on the floor and pencils that were “vast and sharpened,” Ms. Danes said. “I came home and wept. Oh no, this is really not fair.”

Until yesterday, DonorsChoose.org only served teachers in four cities. With corporate support from the insurance firm AIG, the organization is now taking teacher proposals from anywhere in America. During this school year it expects to fund 28,000 projects, compared to 14,000 last year. The nonprofit, which is located in the garment district, vets every project before it goes on its Web site and purchases and sends the requested supplies. It also requires teachers to photograph students executing the project, and has them write thank-you notes, all of which get sent back to the donors.

“Some teachers tell me they have pen pal relationships with their donors,” the founder of DonorsChoose.org, Charles Best, said. “One teacher told me her donor sent the class brownies.”

A former senator of New Jersey, Bill Bradley, was also on hand to celebrate the organization’s going national. “DonorsChoose can change the world for kids and millions of citizens. There’s no place where you can make a difference in the life of this country more than in the classroom,” Mr. Bradley said.

* * *

The prospect of procuring a lunchbox designed by artist Marilyn Minter, singer Rufus Wainwright, or actress Natalie Portman brings to mind the hilarious song by a wacky and endearing Austin-based band, Asylum Street Spankers. “You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox,” is the title and the chorus, and it would certainly apply to the lunchboxes available for sale starting at midnight on December 6 at www.thelunchboxauction.org. Proceeds will support the Food Bank for New York City, which counts children as 30% of its clients, and the Lunchbox Fund, which provides lunch to schoolchildren in South Africa.

The lunchbox itself has proved an iconic symbol that attracts celebrities and donors. “It symbolizes a basic need, and the idea that children shouldn’t be going hungry, anywhere,” a spokeswoman for the Food Bank for New York City, Lisa Jakobsberg, said.

agordon@nysun.com

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