YOU CAN HELP! Simple way to ‘change the lives’ of Highland Park Elementary students

For 5th graders at Highland Park Elementary, it’s the trip of a lifetime – traveling across Puget Sound for outdoor education. But every year, teachers and community members have to raise money to make it happen. This year’s trip is almost here and they still need help, and asked if we could let you know. From the crowdfunding page:

Highland Park is a unique place. We are a Title I school that serves an extremely diverse population with 80% of our students receiving free or reduced-price lunch. Many of our students speak more than one language and bring rich, cultural backgrounds to our community. The wide spectrum of learners creates a distinctive environment where we are happy to teach and grow with our scholars.

Each year, we have the pleasure of taking our fifth graders on a trip to IslandWood – a school in the woods on Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from downtown Seattle. During the four-day excursion, students are exposed to many things that they have never seen or done before, beginning with the ferry ride across Puget Sound and extending throughout their time on site. The staff at IslandWood provides an authentic, engaging learning experience. Every year, we get to watch our students learn in a way that cannot be provided inside the four walls of a classroom. To see the transformation under which many students go when they step beyond the world they live in is nothing short of inspirational. We love seeing those ‘lightbulb’ moments when our scholars click with learning in new, indescribable ways. Not only is the trip to IslandWood a fun-packed adventure, but it shapes the fifth-grade community upon our return as well. We create a close bond and build deeper relationships that greatly improve our ability to rise to the demands of fifth grade.

We want every student to be able to take this trip and have the opportunity to do something completely outside of their normal routine. However, while all the benefits of IslandWood are impossible to quantify, they do come with a price tag. This is where we need your help.

As teachers of Highland Park Elementary, we want to raise money to subsidize the cost of IslandWood so that every student can afford to come, and the only way we can do that is with your support. The last two years, generous donations helped pave the way for our students to have this powerful experience and we want nothing more than for this year’s scholars to receive the same opportunity.

Please consider donating to this trip and help us change the lives of these fifty-eight scholars.

Here again is the link.

11:33 AM NOTE: As commenters point out, there appears to be a problem with the donation process, which isn’t shown until three steps in … we have a message out to organizers … if you were planning to donate, please save the link and check back later! Sorry! (Per comments – fixed.)

11 Replies to "YOU CAN HELP! Simple way to 'change the lives' of Highland Park Elementary students"

  • J March 9, 2018 (10:46 am)

    There’s an issue with the campaign and donations aren’t being accepted at this time.

  • rawlergrrrl March 9, 2018 (11:03 am)

    There is an issue with the GoFundMe page for this fund raiser. =^(  “There’s an issue with this Campaign Organizer’s account. Our team has
    contacted them with the solution! Please ask them to sign in to GoFundMe
    and check their account.”

    • WSB March 9, 2018 (11:07 am)

      What stage of the process did you get that in? I checked the page twice before publishing this and I also just went a step further and clicked “donate” and it took me to the page where I would fill in an amount – did you get the message at a point beyond that?

  • Kalo March 9, 2018 (11:22 am)

    WSB, that is where I got the “problem” message, after I hit donate

    • WSB March 9, 2018 (11:33 am)

      I have sent a note to the teacher who asked us if we would write about this. Please do come back later! I will put a note above in the meantime. Sorry, I’ve never seen or heard of a problem like this three steps into the process … I guess in the future I will have to check beyond the main page (although you would think GFM would put some sort of a trouble message there). As you probably noticed, the campaign did have some donations a few weeks ago, so it didn’t look “not ready” as I see the three-steps-in error message says. – TR

  • Connie Wolf March 9, 2018 (1:57 pm)

    It’s fixed!!!

    WSB, J, Rawlergrrrl, Kalo – thanks for the heads up on the tech issue and THANK YOU for supporting our Highland Park 5th Graders!

  • CB March 10, 2018 (12:50 pm)

    I read this WSB article late last night and shared it on my FB page along with several other neighborhood pages.  The reactions are wonderful and so positive.  Parents, neighbors, and relatives are all chipping in what they can so that these kids can participate in this experience.  The link keeps being reposted and shared on other pages, so I hope you reach your goal soon!  Thank you for sharing this need with the community. 

    • WSB March 10, 2018 (12:52 pm)

      Glad to hear it; our time goes almost entirely toward updating and maintaining WSB as a central, freely accessible to all, no membership required, 24/7 news/information source, so we don’t have time to do much with social media but did share this one on the WSB FB page as well. I hope everyone is aware that the Share This link at the bottom of every WSB story, forum post, etc. opens access to a long list of sharing services, also including Twitter and Reddit, and e-mail (or just right-click the headline to get the link, or copy the link from the browser window, or …). – TR

  • Richard March 10, 2018 (3:21 pm)

    These 5th graders are so excited to have this opportunity.  This is a low income area and Title 1 designated school.  To those parents and community residents who are in more affluent areas, I highly encourage you to help this school and its students by donating to their Go Fund Me page.  Every dollar helps these kids to have an opportunity that may be the only time for some to go away to camp.

    thank you West Seattle Residents

  • hp neighbor March 10, 2018 (8:52 pm)

    Just curious if any money from the hpe auction is helping with the cost. I gave direct $ generously at the auction labeled specifically support this.

    • Connie Wolf March 11, 2018 (2:36 pm)

      Great question HP Neighbor.  HPE’s first-ever auction was a huge success – we raised $11000 which was way beyond our expectations, meeting all of our budgetary needs for the school year and more.  Thanks HP Neighbor for being a part of our legendary night.  Our PTA designates $500 to IslandWood every year – this year we are able to put forth $3000!  The GoFundMe for $8500 is our funding gap from what the Families, PTA, and School are able to cover.  In the past all the fundraising for this life-changing outdoor experience was on the shoulders of our incredible 5th Grade Teachers.  This is the first time our PTA has the bandwidth to take on the responsibility – a good thing too because we have twenty more students going on this trip than last year.  We have received so much support in the last few days, it’s mind-boggling . . . we are grateful for all of the community love that is going to get these SIXTY 5th Graders to IslandWood!

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