Help local students secure internships that might change their lives...
Here is the short version of how I ended up auctioning the chairs I make to raise funds for local high school students...
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I live in a small town and work in a rural school district. Poverty is a real part of life for many of our students. Last year we had a student who was given an opportunity to complete an internship that had a high likelihood of changing his life for the better. There was just one problem, he needed some basic tools and work clothes that his family couldn’t afford. I didn’t want to see this young man miss the opportunity, so I reached out to my coworkers to see if they would be willing to pitch in to buy him the things he needed.
The response was overwhelming. That email went out on a Friday afternoon, and by the time I got to the office the following Monday I had to send another email asking people not to bring me money yet because I knew we would end up with more money than was needed. In other words, I work with a bunch of selfless people who love our students and are willing to reach into their own pockets to help. As it turns out, none of them really wanted to wait, and several handed me cash that Monday.
We ended up collecting $350 or so, which as I feared was far more than we originally needed. After outfitting the student with what he needed I was still in possession of a couple hundred dollars of my coworkers’ money. None of them were interested in taking it back, so we decided we would just open a bank account and stash that money away to use for the same reason in the future.
A few months later one of those same coworkers, Dr. Michelle Harless, came to me with an idea to raise even more money. Michelle is a very talented photographer and spends a lot of her free time taking beautiful nature photos. She puts together a calendar each year and sells them to friends and family. She offered to donate the proceeds she raised from the 2022 calendar sales to the account we opened - how generous! Fast forward to December, Michelle handed me a check for $700 to deposit into the account.
That got me thinking, “maybe I could do something like that.” That prompted me to create this website to auction the chairs I make for fun while I am spending time in the woodshop. Read more about how I ended up making Windsor chairs here.
Dr. Michelle Harless presents a donation of $700 from the proceeds of her annual calendar sale.