Calculator$ for Kale: a Random Act of Kindness

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

The moderators asked that we start a new thread that they'll make "sticky" for this donations page for Kale and his calculators. Thanks much to the moderators and MAK for allowing us to do this!! 

http://www.thefamilybus.net/kale/kale.htm

If you're new here, or haven't been following along, Craig (Gumpy) Shepard created a thread here on MAK about a kid from Dixon, WY that entered a TI graphic calculator contest to try to win a calculator for himself and possibly his school. Even with many of us voting mutiple times, Kale could not crack the Top Ten vote-getters (many from large schools and cities) and win anything. 

But we wanted to send Kale and his school the calculators anyway! Craig will collect the donations and take care of the purchasing and sending of the calcs. Thanks, Craig! I understand that many of you have already donated to this worthy cause. And I also heard that some busnut rallies will be collecting $ and goods to send Kale and his school! Ain't busnuts a great bunch of folks?!

Feel free to send the page to friends and family that might not read the MAK board. There should be enough info on the page to allow someone to decide whether or not to donate to the cause.

Craig will keep track of our efforts here. Hopefully we can all make a BIG difference with our little donations for Kale and his school in this... Random Act of Kindness.

Brian B.

[gumpy]

Brian, moderators, and all busnuts who have taken time to participate in this project through voting, contributions, and responses to the original thread:

Thank you all for helping to make this happen. As of this afternoon, I have $212.97 posted to the account from Paypal donations. I will update this thread as more donations come in. I'm expecting this to last about 4 weeks, and will then know how many calculators we'll be able to provide to Kale and the school. It looks like the TI-84 Silver Edition graphing calculators cost somewhere between $100 and $130 and I'll be looking for the best deals on them.

I'm planning to contact the principal and math teacher at the high school in Baggs today or tomorrow to let them know what's going on, and make sure we don't get equipment that's incompatible with anything they already use. I suspect that won't be a problem, though.

craig

[NJT5047]

Craig, I know you are having to work with and create various accounts so that you can transfer funds from Paypal into an easily accessable account...have you considered paying for the calculators with Paypal?  Almost everyone accepts Paypal payments.   
May save you a little pain.   
Best, JR

[gumpy]

Yeah, but that will depend on where I find the best deals on new calculators.

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

Maybe you already use this, Craig, but here's a Froogal search for the calc. http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=Texas+Instruments+TI-84+Silver+Plus&btnG=Search+Froogle

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Good Luck Guy's,

You are Sticky Now....

Nick-

[gumpy]

This is awesome.

We're up to $362.97.   That's at least 4 calculators!  I'm overwhelmed by the generosity of the members of this community.

I called the school today, but was unable to talk with either the principal or the math teacher. I'll call back tomorrow.

There's still a slight glitch in the paypal account. Because I had to set up a new one, it has to be verified to use the button Brian set up (go figure). So, they sent two small deposits to my bank account which I have to verify on their site, and they haven't shown up in my bank yet. So, it looks
like they will sit there till I can get the account fully verified and then "accept" them. It seems to only
happen on the one's sent by the button, and not the ones sent directly to the account.

I've also confirmed that the other address works, too. Not sure why it rejected the first payment.
So, if I reach the limit of one, I'll have Brian change the address to the other one.

Those who would like to contribute directly rather than through the button can use either craig or paypal at gumpydog.com as the email address.

craig

[NJT5047]

My experience with Paypal is that it take about 3 days for an E-deposit, and another day or so for the bank to post same.
JR

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

JR's right, it does take a few days to initiate the wires. Craig, I have two biz. accounts with Paypal. One for eBay auctions and one for the beer poster sales. If you'd like, I could set up the button to funnel Kale's $ to one of those until you get yours upgraded. And rather than incur more Paypal fees to transfer the Paypal cash back to your account, I could just snail mail you a check of the total donations.

Just a thought, and let me know what you think...

Brian

[BJW]

Hey Craig,

You may check with TI or the school district to find the best deal on the calcs.  My mom was a school teacher for 47 years and I remember a ton of special deals she got through either the manufacturer, wholesaler or school district offers that saved her a ton of money (sometimes under wholesale) when buying things for her students.  I don't know if this helps, but just a thought. 

Keep up the great work,
BJW

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

Good point, BJW! I also have an educator discount since I homeschool (a virtual academy, really) our three kiddos. I dunno if I could scare up a discount on calcs with it, but would be happy to try. Usually a discounter like Amazon would be cheaper still than purchasing through TI with a modest discount, but I'll check into it.

bb

[kyle4501]

Since TI is doing the design promotion that started this GREAT IDEA, why not contact them & give them the chance to help? It may be that they want to support this type of helping schools. They may even help with getting some covers made!

YOU GUYS ARE COOL

[boogiethecat]

'tis been a few days now with no posts on this thread... where are we at with all of this?
Cheers
Gary

[gumpy]

Currently, there have been a total of $372.97 sent in (if my math hasn't failed me).

I'm expecting to keep this thread posted through October, and purchase calculators in early November to send. I haven't been able to make contact with the Principal yet. Our schedules were not symbotic last week. Hoping to do that this week.

I've not been successful finding someone who can put Kale's design on a calculator cover. Still looking.

craig

[Busted Knuckle]

Craig, please do keep this going 'ti; after the end of Oct. as I'm planning to see about contributing some also, but right now I need to keep my $ worried on the bus bash! But as soon as the bash is over it won't have to worry anymore! LOL! I'll be in touch! BK