$20,000 fund will help teachers

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

SPRINGFIELD What started as a $10,000 class gift to be used to fulfill the needs of Springfield school teachers has now grown to a $20,000 fund that hopefully will inspire other individuals to directly underwrite teacher's projects.

Members of the Classical High School Class of 1957 met last week at the location of their former high school to announce what they hope will be a long-term effort to help the city's schools.

Thanks to both the generosity of Classical alumni and contributions made by Charter Oak Capital Partners of Westport, Conn. and Circle Medical Devices of Los Gatos, Calif., a $20,000 fund now exists that will be used to help teachers who have registered their needs on www.donorschoose.org.

The first four teacher requests Peter Scaramuzzo, Donna Carlson, Rebecca Lauterback from the Alfred G. Zanetti Montessori Magnet School and Joshua Snyder from the Horace Mann New Leadership Charter School were delivered.

The class will set up a committee to consider other requests from city teachers.

Class member Norma Wanegar said the fellow class member Sandy Gates Geddes, had proposed the idea of a fund to honor to classmates, Ralph Guertin and Peter Roth. When School Department procedure prevented the class members contributing the initial $10,000 fund directly to the city's special education programs, they sought a different way.

"How to get the money to where it was needed had us stumped," Wanegar said.

The Donorschoose Web site proved to be the answer. Teachers post specific needs on the site and donors can elect to fund part or all of a request. Donorschoose buys the supplies and delivers them to the teacher. Donors receive follow-up letters from the teacher and students and can receive a tax deduction.

Since being founded in 2000, Donorschoose has connected $22 million from donors with teachers' needs. A separate Web page has been established for requests from Springfield teachers at www.donorschoose.org/

Mayor Domenic Sarno said he is deeply appreciative of the class's efforts.

"This means a million dollars to me and the city of Springfield," Sarno added.

Sarno, who often cites his status as a proud graduate of the High School of Commerce, was given a challenge by the Classical alumni to establish a similar fund among Commerce alumni.

Despite the fact that a number of the alumni no longer live in Springfield, Wanegar said, "Our hearts are definitely in this city."