Taylorsville community's social networking gains $5,000 for local school

Taylorsville community members and many of their "friends"--the Facebook kind and otherwise--banded together in early October to give Plymouth Elementary School an incredible gift--$5,000 to fund class field trips.

The money came from an online contest run by Kimberly Clark, the company that makes Kleenex brand tissues. Any adult in the U.S. could participate, and the rules were simple: log on to Facebook, "like" Kleenex brand on its page, and vote for your school of choice when prompted. The 100 schools with the most votes got the cash.

The problem?

"It was a five-day window we had to do this," Principal Tysen Fausett said.

Less than that, in a practical sense. Fifth grade teacher Cindy Bateman found out about the Facebook contest on a Friday. The school wasn't able to get information out to parents until Monday, and the contest ended that Wednesday. Plymouth needed the funds, since they don't really have a budget for field trips, so they gave it a shot despite the obvious difficulty.

"There are a lot of great resources out there," Fausett said. However, the cost of many of the field trips available and the transportation to get students there and back to school adds up quickly. "That eliminates activities right off the bat."

Despite having only three full days to work with, the Taylorsville community came through for Plymouth. First the school's PTA got involved, and spread the word to their friends. Bateman contacted more people at the Abbott Laboratories Retirement Home, and the votes for Plymouth stacked up higher. Near the end, even Vista Elementary parents and faculty started voting for their neighbor, as their own school was not registered for the contest.

"It was a massive undertaking of people helping out," Bateman said. "It was very nice to see a small area of Taylorsville come together."

A $5,000 check was officially presented to the school on Dec. 20.

The funds were split up between the school's grade levels, each of which now has $715 at its disposal and the freedom to choose how it will be used.

"We want to celebrate and do something really cool," Bateman said.

They'll have to think about it a bit, though--so many possibilities are now open to them that weren't before, she said.

Field trips are very important for students because they add so much to schools' curriculum, Fausett said. They can either be an exciting hook at the beginning of a unit of study, or a culminating activity that reinforces what they just learned.

"That just supports what the teachers are doing, in a different environment," he said.