Africa and Beyond

RED TRUNK NEEDS YOUR HELP

In August of 2017 Red Trunk Project launched a
GoFundMe to raise the money to gather the materials the make our first Red Trunk to test in schools.

The campaign was a success! We raised $16,000.

A Red Trunk team traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, at the end of September, 2017, to gather artifacts, shoot video, take photographs, and interview children about their lives in Oaxaca.

Check out this video of our trip:



RED TRUNK'S MISSION

The Red Trunk Project is a cultural initiative that sparks a global dialogue based on the imperative to Respect Every Difference—the RED in Red Trunk. Our goal is to create a brighter, more inclusive future for all children, working to ensure that children better understand and empathize with their fellow citizens around the world—a simple yet powerful idea that’s more important than ever today.

We utilize experiential learning, cultural artifacts (such as arts and crafts, clothing, currency, musical instruments, etc.), video, and lesson plans—all found in each Red Trunk—to tell the stories of individual children and their cultures’. The Red Trunk Project provides in-depth, hands-on insights into other cultures, allowing children to connect with distant parts of the world they would might not have the opportunity to travel to themselves.



HOW WE DO IT

The Red Trunk Project team—educators, anthropologists, archivists, videographers, photographers, curators and ethnographers—travels around the globe to work with schools and interview local children about their day-to-day experiences. The team captures the children’s stories with video and photography, and collects examples of tangible, physical artifacts. This material is brought back, cataloged, edited and compiled, and is then packed into a Red Trunk along with ethnography and lesson plans. That trunk is then duplicated a hundred times, translated into different languages, and shipped all over the world so kids can explore the trunk's contents and learn about a new culture.

 

MATCHING DONATIONS

Red Trunk Project (tm) needs to raise $40,000 for its trip to Africa, to make a second trunk for testing in schools. Fortunately, a member of the Red Trunk Team, Melissa Carroll, is an employee at a large international foundation that has a generous matching donations program. (We aren't supposed to advertise the name of the foundation. But believe us, you've heard of the foundation. It's seriously big.)

This large foundation will match every employee donation on a 3 to 1 basis. Meaning, they will match every dollar donated by an employee with 3 dollars of their own. Which translates to Red Trunk only having to raise $10,000 in order to leverage an additional $30,000, for a total of $40,000.



It's important to point out, however, that your contribution WILL NOT be tax deductible. Yes, Red Trunk Project is a 501(c)(3) corporation, but because the donations are flowing through the employee, you can't claim the deduction.

(It's also important to point out that the foundation employee, Melissa Carroll, will NOT be taking the deduction. The employee most certainly does not want to be audited by the IRS. Melissa, the president of Red Trunk's Board of Director and employee of the foundation, withdraws the donations from the GoFundMe account and deposits them in Red Trunk's bank account. Once the payment is certified by the foundation, and then accepted by Red Trunk, the matching donation check is mailed from the foundation to Red Trunk.)

If you want to make a tax-deductible donation to Red Trunk, please donate through any of the DONATE buttons in the Red Trunk website .




SMALL DONATIONS

Red Trunk is asking for small donations from everyone we know. Only 10 to 25 bucks a person. We like to think that these donations are similar to when you toss a few bucks into the hat of a talented musician or artist busking on the street. 

Please, take a few minutes and throw something in the hat. And if you want to donate more, please feel free to do so! 

This is an incredible way to leverage your donation to maximum effect. A donation of $10 magically morphs into $40 to Red Trunk. A donation of $25 blossoms into $100. And a donation of $250 explodes into $1,000. How amazing is that?




MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Red Trunk Project gives children around the world an in-depth, hands-on exposure to one another, doing its part to break down barriers and replace divisiveness, hatred, and violence with tolerance, and a shared understanding of one another.

Red Trunk Project shines a light on what makes us similar while ultimately celebrating our fascinating and unique differences.



WHAT WILL RED TRUNK DO WITH THE $40,000?

The Red Trunk team will be traveling to Rwanda in March to gather artifacts, interviews, and materials to make the second set of Red Trunks. (Budget at the bottom of this page.)

This is a vital step in Red Trunk's development. It's important for kids in classrooms to have two trunks to explore, back to back, to compare and contrast different cultures. It's important for Red Trunk to further hone the process of gathering cultural marterial and then figuring out the best methodology for sharing that material with students in a classroom. (Please click here to visit our website for a full explanation of the HOW.)

The first step for making these trip possible was a donation of 200,000 AAdvantage air miles from the newest member of the RTP Board of Directors, Jon Hamm.

The second step for making these trips happen is a donation from YOU.

After you donate, please share on socia media. Hit the sharing buttons for Facebook and Twitter.

THANK YOU.

YOU are making Red Trunk Project a reality.


HOW WE ARE SPENDING THE MONEY

Scouting/First contact trip (airfare, lodging, translator, consultants): $2,250

Airfare for 4 member team: (already donated)

Lodging for 4:  $2,800

Food/misc for 4 for 2 weeks: $3,000

Cultural anthrolopologist for 12 days @ $200 per day: $2,400

Driver/ Translator for 12 days @ $100 per day: $1,200

First Camera/post production for video: $5,000

Second Camera/Sound: $1,050

Photographer:  $2,000
 
TOTAL FOR TRAVEL………………....…………….......$19,700

Ethonography for trunk contents: $3,000

Curriculum development /book editing:  $3,000

Translation:   $2,000

Artifacts for 10 trunks, $250 each: $2,500

Build 10 trunks, $400 each: $4,000

 Shipping to and from Rwanda: $800

TOTAL TO BUILD/FILL TRUNKS…………....…….$15,300

 Testing in schools:......................................................$5,000

TOTAL FOR TRIP TO RWANDA, BUILDING 10 TRUNKS, AND TESTING IN SCHOOLS..........…$40,000



Thank you for your time and consideration.

Kevin Thomsen
President & Founder, Red Trunk Project, Inc.