Hey, look what I won!

Deep Sea Swag!

That’s the gorgeous book, Poseidon’s Steed, by Helen Scales –truly a lovely natural history of seahorses and human’s relationship with these remarkable creatures.  Then there’s a pad of seahorse paper, perfectly pocket-sized for note-taking at the zoo; a dancy squid with springy tentacles (he’s a refrigerator magnet!) and an official Scripps Institution of Oceanography coffee mug.

So, what did I do to deserve this fun collection from Scripps?

I donated money to Donorschoose.org as part of the Science Bloggers for Students Challenge. Donorschoose.org is a great program where teachers who need classroom supplies post their needs and donors contribute money to fulfill those needs.

One of the blogs I supported was Ocean & Geobloggers member, Deep Sea News (DSN).  At the end of the challenge, they did a random draw of donors and I was the winner!  (I had no idea they were even drawing!) So, yay for cool ocean swag and thank you to the folks at DSN and Scripps who made it happen.

Now I want to take a minute here to do a plug for Donorschoose.org. If you’re looking for a way to make a direct impact on education and children, this is the way to do it.

From their “How it works” page:

DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need.

Here’s how it works: public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class.

Then, you can browse project requests and give any amount to the one that inspires you. Once a project reaches its funding goal, we deliver the materials to the school.

You’ll get photos of your project taking place, a thank-you letter from the teacher, and a cost report showing how each dollar was spent. If you give over $50, you’ll also receive hand-written thank-you letters from the students.

I’m happy to have supported three projects so far:

Two of these donations were made possible by the Science Bloggers for Students Board of Directors who provided a match for all donations made to the challenge between October 20th and 22nd.

So, if you’re looking to make a holiday donation, check out Donorschoose.org.