The Great Human Race

On March 24, 2012, Just Right Academy will field students, teachers, and parents in The Great Human Race in Durham. The GHR is sponsored by the Durham Volunteer Center and benefits many area nonprofits. It is a 5K run/walk and provides us, along with over 100 other agencies, the opportunity to raise money for our organization. Our board chair, Lois Batson, along with parent Tricia Budd, have stepped up to chair this endeavor. They attended a Durham Volunteer Center workshop, created our page, and have started recruiting walkers, runners, and donors.

They set an ambitious goal of $25,000. Raising this money would ensure that we can continue to  provide tuition assistance to our students. Our goal is that at least a third of our students are middle and low income; we achieved that this year and as we grow, we hope to keep that percentage the same. These students and all our students receive individual reading tutoring if needed, speech and language therapy, intensive social skills coaching, academic remediation and challenge, ample physical activity, and a structured caring environment that helps them feel safe and valued.

We’d love to have you walk or run with us. We’d also love to see your name up there as a supporting donor. Please support Just Right Academy and the children who need our services so badly.

Value-added donations

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we are able to receive tax-deductible donations, and we try to use them wisely. Let’s follow one $100 donation and see how it’s used.

We are adding a fourth classroom this year, and for that we need a new door, circa 1920′s to 1950′s. We are a historical building, so it needs to match the other doors. We can’t go to Home Depot and find what we need, so we call salvage companies and check at thrift stores. Although I’m searching for a door, I keep my eyes open for other needed items too, and I strike pay dirt. Someone has obviously cleaned out recently because I find over 200 paperback and hardback books for our library, including full sets of phonetic readers: cost $38. I move on to Habitat ReStores. Sure enough, at the one in Durham I find a historical, five paneled door, just what we’re looking for, for $30, as well as an 8 foot solid wood work table for my classroom on sale for $40. As I’m leaving, I spot two padded, stackable chairs for the table, $6 each.

Back at school, in preparation for our geography unit, I order two Montessori map puzzles and a set of landform trays from a discount Montessori website: total, $80. I feel like I’ve gotten good value from that one $100 donation: a new door, worktable and two chairs, 200+ books, 2 wooden puzzles and 10 landform trays.

At this point, you are thinking that we don’t do a very good job of teaching math at JRA. But what I’ve neglected to tell you is that during this summer and early fall, each donation is matched by an anonymous donor. So each donation does double duty. And because we often buy used and search out discount sites, your donation gives even more value. Buying from thrift stores is an inflation buster; a similar table retails for over $600 and the chairs are $34 each.

We prefer to find what we need in this way so that we can provide tuition assistance to more students. We are not an exclusive community of learners; we welcome families of all income levels and circumstances. Right now I am working to find funds to offset tuition costs for students who need our services very badly but can’t pay full tuition.

For that, we need your help and your donations. Please consider making a monthly or yearly, tax-deductible donation to JRA. You can give and know that your donation will go far to make a struggling student’s life richer and more successful. We value your gifts and we promise to make them go as far as possible.

Thank you for your help.

Shop for JRA

This Thursday, December 9, from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, join Just Right Academy at Ten Thousand Villages in Chapel Hill. Ten Thousand Villages can be found at Eastgate Shopping Center at 1800 East Franklin Street and provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Ten Thousand Villages will give Just Right Academy 10% of the profit on items sold during our shopping event. We’ll have hot cider and cookies and staff will be available to talk about the school. It’s a wonderful place to do holiday shopping while knowing that you are helping Third World artisans and Just Right Academy. See you there!

The 101 Club

Just Right Academy, Inc. is finally a reality. We have a building, we have students, we have teachers and materials, and we have bills to pay. And we need your help in getting started.

Part of our mission is to have a significant percentage of low-income children. To do that, we need to get the fundraising part of our nonprofit going. So as a jumpstart, we introduce the 101 Club. We are asking 101 people to donate $101 each to help take us through the summer. Of course we will take a smaller or larger donation, but this just seemed like a cool number to go with.

Paypal is available on the website. If you are local, I’ll be glad to pick up a check. Or you can mail it to Just Right Academy, Inc., PO Box 3523, Chapel Hill, NC 27515. Or you can drop it by. We are located at the Shared Visions Retreat Center at 3729 Murphy School Road, Durham, NC 27705, though it’s actually just south of Hillsborough. We’d love to have you stop by and visit.

Our students have had unhappy school experiences. They are looking forward to starting over and being successful. But they need your help. Please consider joining the 31 other members in our 101 club. It’s an investment you won’t regret.