2+2 = 4 in any language

I just got off the phone with Donovan. Both my boys in one week. Sweet.

One week ago today we had the ribbon cutting for the new addition at the high schoool. We have 29 new classrooms, training rooms, new offices, new stadium seating, concessions and a lot more. As the teachers move from their old classroom into their new rooms, they are finding they have an excess of things they no longer use- filing cabinets, desks, chairs, shelves, books, all sorts of things. The furniture goes into a pile of surplus to be auctioned off by the district if no one else in the school can use it. The books go to surplus but most of it has gone in a huge dumpster parked next to the school. We got 3 new computer labs complete with computers. The science rooms are filled with science equipment. Every classroom is equipped with a ceiling mounted projector, computer and state of the art lights that come on when someone enters the room and automatically turn off when no one is in the room.

In contrast, the high school in the city where Donovan is stationed, they have no room, no paper, no pens and pencils, no backpacks, no microscopes in the science labs, no math books. Some of the students do not even have shoes. There are no desks because there is no room for desks.The principal said he would love to have a whole new wing of classrooms so that he could house the students.

Donovan said that many units have promised this school help, but when they deliver it is mostly candy and non-esssentials. Donovan's unit would like to help this school and these students to be successful. He has asked me if I would do some sort of fundraiser (equipment raiser?). They are taking pictures and one of the wives is making fliers. I will post them as soon as I have them. The school has a 4 month summer so the children can work on the farm and raise and gather food for the winter.

Donovan says that just about anything needed for school would be welcome. Sandals or flip flops for the kids, $5 microscopes from Wal-Mart, computers, pens, pencils, paper, backpacks, Math text books to put in the backpacks because math is the one subject that is the same everywhere. The unit would love to be able to present the principal with much needed equipment before school starts again in October.

I said I would see what I could do. I love that my child still thinks that all he has to do is ask and I can make it happen. How do I make it happen?

Can you say overwhelming? I have never done something this big before and I have no idea where to start. Who do I contact, where to I begin, how does something like this work? And how do we get it done?

---

Indeed.