Fundraiser launched to help students meet essential needs

The website supports donations either through Paypal or with a debit or credit card.

Or, checks made out to the Education Foundation of North Wasco County SD21 can be mailed to the foundation at 3632 W. 10th St., The Dalles, which is the administrative office for North Wasco County School District 21. Please write in the memo “COVID response fund.”

Basic needs are a big issue for a lot of families, said Rebecca Thistlethwaite, the non-profit organization’s new part-time administrative director. The education foundation is best known for its scholarship program for The Dalles High School seniors.

The fundraiser, launched April 15, was already at 12 percent of its goal early Saturday morning. The goal is to raise at least $20,000 in four weeks.

School principals in D21were noting students didn’t have internet connections at home with which to access online learning, Thistlethwaite said. Some families also didn’t have the needed gas to get to drop-off points to pick up free meals offered by D21.

Oregon schools have been closed since mid-March in an effort to slow transmission of the novel coronavirus. Required online schooling began April 13.

D21 is offering Chromebook computers to each student who needs one.

It is also expected that some of the Chromebooks that go home will break, and the funding will help start buying replacements, Thistlethwaite said.

Also planned is buying either wi-fi hotspot devices or internet service vouchers for families without internet access.

“The distribution of this will have to be put together over the next two weeks,” said Thislethwaite, who is also a D21 school board member.

“It might just be reimbursing people for internet or helping them sign up for the internet, or lending them a wi-fi hotspot,” she said.

“We want to make sure all the kids can participate in distance learning. They have to have the devices and they have to have internet,” she said.

Each school is identifying families without internet and they will work to see if a hotspot or paying for internet access for at least a couple months is suitable, Thistlethwaite said.

The foundation will also use money raised to buy food in partnership with the Oregon Food Bank, which has more purchasing power, Thistlethwaite said. The food will go toward the backpack program, which provides food over weekends for students.

Thistlethwaite has significant fundraising experience, and has raised several hundred thousand dollars for Mosier Community School. She settled on a $20,000 goal because she created a rough budget of what the most-needed items would cost, and she also based it on what other education foundations have been raising in a short amount of time for coronavirus response.

“A bunch of people got their stimulus checks already, and I know there’s a lot of folks who aren’t unemployed who don’t need that money, and it’s a perfect opportunity” to donate, she said.

The money will stay in the local economy, she said, with gas cards purchased from local gas stations.