Partnering with KCC on a New Project

In 2019, Kauai Community College Creative Media instructor Steve Watkins determined that students and lecturers in all Creative Media classes should work together each term to support local nonprofit organizations. Students work with nonprofits producing professional fundraising and promotional video programs, musical compositions, still photographs, graphics, and websites. These are the most heavily weighted assignments and projects. 

Each term, a minimum of five nonprofit organizations are chosen for a variety of digital media projects. Students get hands-on experience with high-quality production processes and open communication channels similar to that of an expert advertising agency. The students, in turn, develop professional relationships with prospective employers and keep KCC active in the community.

This year, Growing Our Own Teachers on Kauai was one of the nonprofits selected. One of our directors, Rose Ramos-Benzel, is serving as the point person for our project. With input from our Fundraising/Marketing Committee, Steve’s Intermediate Digital Video class, along with the Photography students, are creating a video about our organization which will be geared toward prospective donors. Featured in the video will be President Nancy Kanna, Paul Zina, Ron Wiley, an annual donor, as well as past and current recipients. Interviews will be conducted this month, with editing and final delivery of the project by early December. 

We are extremely excited about this project and the many ways we can use the final footage to promote our organization, to attract donors and scholarship recipients, and raise funds.

It’s Fundraising Season!

Multiple Ways to Donate

We are gearing up our end-of-the-year fundraising campaign by focusing on “Giving Tuesday” on November 30, 2021.

Here are some possible ways to help us with that campaign. There are many ways to donate to Growing Our Own Teachers On Kauai.

First, consider Growing Our Own Teachers On Kauai for your Required Minimum Distribution. If you are over 70 years and 6 months old and have a pension plan, such as an IRA or TSA that requires you to take out a certain amount of money yearly, you may have your financial advisor donate some or all of that money to a charity, or 501(c)(3), like Growing Our Own Teachers On Kauai. Consult your financial advisor for details.

Second, many of you are ordering items through Amazon these days. You can contribute to our organization directly through the Amazon Smile program. Just register with Amazon Smile through the Amazon shopping website. If you are not already registered it will ask you to designate a charity. You will find that Growing Our Own Teachers On Kauai is one you can contribute to through your Amazon purchases. The good thing about this contribution is that you are not giving the money, Amazon is!  They give the charity an amount that is a percentage of your purchase cost and the money comes from them, not you.

Third, you can make a direct donation through our website at GrowingKauaiTeachers.org using a credit card. Just click on any Donate button on our site. 

Finally, you can send a check directly to our official address:

Growing Our Own Teachers On Kauai
P.O. Box 1117
Kalaheo, HI 96741

 

Mahalo nui loa

Last month, Growing Our Own Teachers on Kauai held its first online fundraising event. We honored all our current teachers for National Teacher Appreciation Day.  It takes special people to be called into the the teaching profession and we want to recognize those who have become teachers as well as those who are working to become teachers.  

We are excited to say our campaign was a complete success! We exceeded our $5,000 goal and reached $6,300 from private donations alone.  In addition, we have garnered over $17,000 in grants this year to support our mission to assist aspiring teachers on Kauai. 

We are grateful to all of our supporters for their contributions to our cause. 

Our grant recipients also understand that we are funded not only by local foundations and clubs, but by the community members they are working to serve. All of our student teacher recipients from the past few years are still teaching in Kauai schools. This is their promise to you: to teach on Kauai for a minimum of three years. Even in this time of a worldwide pandemic, our recipients are finding ways to continue teaching our keiki and fulfill their promise.

Thank you, again, for your support.