Donation protected
Kiara is going to Europe with her school!
With your help, that is. :)
Kiara is my 13 year old daugher. She has received the Academic Excellence Award for the past two years in middle school, has been awarded honor roll status every year since she started school, is a part of AVID (a college and leadershop readiness program offered to a select few in her school), is a teen voice for equality and feminist activism, and just a downright smart, talented, empathetic, caring person wise beyond her years with a heart ten times bigger.
Last week she was one of only 180 students out of 1300+ students in her entire school to be nominated by a teacher for a school trip to France and Italy. A nomination alone speaks volumes of her ability and character as a student and person. Below you will see the letter with a bit of description about being nominated, the trip, and so forth.
I have omitted specific name/location details for safety and privacy concerns, but as you can see - this is a pretty big deal and a huge honor to be nominated for and, again, speaks volumes of her as a student and what her school and teachers think of her ability and her future.
Unfortunately, a trip like this is simply outside of my budget. I am a full time single father of two who finds himself in the "low income" bracket of things. An opportunity such as this does not just fall into people's laps every day and it is something I would really, really, really like her to be able to do. As mentioned in the letter, it will be a great assset when she begins shopping around for colleges - which she is already vocal about and considering to a good degree. Additionally, if you know my daughter you know how truly special and important she would find this trip if she were able to go - no small nuance or detail would be overlooked or taken for granted.
So, we are reaching out to friends, family, and strangers to help make this once in a lifetime dream and opporunity come true.
Any donation will be sincerely appreciated and rewarded. Rewards and perks are still being worked out, but for the time being Kiara is taking some of my suggestions and ideas and thinking them over and putting thought into thoughtful perks/rewards. Some ideas on the table are personalized postcards from specific destinations on the trip, personalized photos at specific locations along the trip, letters, short Facetime videos along the trip, handcrafted crafts/arts trinkets from Kiara and myself, larger custom sticker packs and paintings from yours truly.
Watch this space in the next couple of days for updates about rewards/perks, a personal video message about the nomination and the trip from Kiara, and more. Any donations made in the meantime will be noted and rewarded according perks/rewards once they have been decided upon.
The first and most important obstacle for locking Kiara's spot in for this trip is the $95 guarantee registration fee. I just found out about this on Friday 5/15/15 and the informational meeting and registration to secure her place in the trip is on Wednesday 5/20/15. I simply do not have $95 in disposable income right now to guarantee her place. So, we are most immediately seeking that $95 to secure a spot for Kiara. We will find out specifics about dates and costs when we attend the meeting, but the rumor mill at school suggests the trip to cost $4000-5000 all said and done. So, obviously, we would be seeking help with that - and if there were any chance at doubling that to secure a place for me to travel with the group, as mentioned in the letter, that would be phenomenal as well. But, most important - again - is securing her place in the SMALL group of 30 students by Wednesday 5/20/15.
We thank you in advance and hope you can help make this dream come true and then vicariously travel with!
With your help, that is. :)
Kiara is my 13 year old daugher. She has received the Academic Excellence Award for the past two years in middle school, has been awarded honor roll status every year since she started school, is a part of AVID (a college and leadershop readiness program offered to a select few in her school), is a teen voice for equality and feminist activism, and just a downright smart, talented, empathetic, caring person wise beyond her years with a heart ten times bigger.
Last week she was one of only 180 students out of 1300+ students in her entire school to be nominated by a teacher for a school trip to France and Italy. A nomination alone speaks volumes of her ability and character as a student and person. Below you will see the letter with a bit of description about being nominated, the trip, and so forth.
I have omitted specific name/location details for safety and privacy concerns, but as you can see - this is a pretty big deal and a huge honor to be nominated for and, again, speaks volumes of her as a student and what her school and teachers think of her ability and her future.
Unfortunately, a trip like this is simply outside of my budget. I am a full time single father of two who finds himself in the "low income" bracket of things. An opportunity such as this does not just fall into people's laps every day and it is something I would really, really, really like her to be able to do. As mentioned in the letter, it will be a great assset when she begins shopping around for colleges - which she is already vocal about and considering to a good degree. Additionally, if you know my daughter you know how truly special and important she would find this trip if she were able to go - no small nuance or detail would be overlooked or taken for granted.
So, we are reaching out to friends, family, and strangers to help make this once in a lifetime dream and opporunity come true.
Any donation will be sincerely appreciated and rewarded. Rewards and perks are still being worked out, but for the time being Kiara is taking some of my suggestions and ideas and thinking them over and putting thought into thoughtful perks/rewards. Some ideas on the table are personalized postcards from specific destinations on the trip, personalized photos at specific locations along the trip, letters, short Facetime videos along the trip, handcrafted crafts/arts trinkets from Kiara and myself, larger custom sticker packs and paintings from yours truly.
Watch this space in the next couple of days for updates about rewards/perks, a personal video message about the nomination and the trip from Kiara, and more. Any donations made in the meantime will be noted and rewarded according perks/rewards once they have been decided upon.
The first and most important obstacle for locking Kiara's spot in for this trip is the $95 guarantee registration fee. I just found out about this on Friday 5/15/15 and the informational meeting and registration to secure her place in the trip is on Wednesday 5/20/15. I simply do not have $95 in disposable income right now to guarantee her place. So, we are most immediately seeking that $95 to secure a spot for Kiara. We will find out specifics about dates and costs when we attend the meeting, but the rumor mill at school suggests the trip to cost $4000-5000 all said and done. So, obviously, we would be seeking help with that - and if there were any chance at doubling that to secure a place for me to travel with the group, as mentioned in the letter, that would be phenomenal as well. But, most important - again - is securing her place in the SMALL group of 30 students by Wednesday 5/20/15.
We thank you in advance and hope you can help make this dream come true and then vicariously travel with!
Organizer
Joshua Decker
Organizer
Champlin, MN