Greater Ravalli Foundation teams with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to Increase Support of Ravalli County Schools

Susan Speicher spent enough years as a school teacher and guidance counselor to know all about the challenges facing those working to educate young people.

So two years ago when a television report mentioned a relatively new program that offered benefactors a chance to chip in on supplies needed by teachers, Speicher said she couldn’t help herself.

“The report was about a man teaching Latino boys how to swim after school,” she remembered. “He needed 12 pairs of goggles. If people wanted to help, they could go to the Web site, DonorsChoose, and donate whatever they could.

“I had to do it,” she said. “Somebody beat me to it.”
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Speicher didn’t forget.

And so when she heard the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx agreed to match donations for projects designed to help improve high school students’ likelihood to attend college at DonorsChoose, she encouraged the Greater Ravalli Foundation http://www.tgrf.org/ to jump on board.

The foundation board agreed to do just that.

The Greater Ravalli Foundation has set aside $10,000 that it will use to match donations from the public to pay for educational needs at Ravalli County high schools. That $20,000 could, in turn, be matched by the Gates Foundation to provide a total of $40,000 for local schools.

by PERRY BACKUS – Ravalli Republic

Full Story: http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2009/12/30/news/news48.txt