Donations

Where Do Donations Go?

When you donate to the Garfield Golden Grads over and above your membership fee, you choose whether to help Scholarships, the student-run Garfield Messenger that assists with our newsletters, or the Unhoused/Student Assistance Fund. The fund is described more next. Scroll down to the bottom if you decide you would like to donate.

Unhoused/Student Assistance Fund

Our Homeless Student Fund has evolved both in its name and its scope. The new name is Unhoused/Student Assistance Fund, and it has three parts.

*Unhoused Student Fund*

The Seattle Atlas for Student Homelessness found in a recent study that 1 out of every 13 students at Garfield is homeless. The district-wide study found that Garfield, a leader in basketball and robotics, also leads in its unhoused population, with 136 homeless students enrolled. In the past four years, that number has increased by 84%, thanks mostly to increased reports of homelessness.

Many students are without stable housing, and our funds help support these students by

  • Giving gift cards to big-box stores. This lets students buy food and essentials.
  • Buying Garfield gear from the student store that Garfield counselor Porcia Beard gives to students.
  • Miss Porcia also has a snack table (Costco gift cards) for students to go to between classes.
  • Other community organizations cover student fees such as sports, musical instruments and backpacks.

All of this was managed by the wonderful Porcia Beard. Due to staff changes, Jamie Rees will be our Garfield contact.

*Tutoring Program*

The goal of the tutoring program is to provide needed academic and social-emotional support to Garfield’s highest-need students, resulting in higher graduation rates and more satisfied students. Originally the plan was to mainly use Garfield teachers as tutors and maybe a few student tutors. Surprisingly, most of the tutors have been students who willingly volunteered for the position. Working with Principal Hart and Jamie Rees, the academic intervention specialist and tutoring program leader, the program got off to a great start and has received rave reviews. The tutoring has included math, English, science, PE and social studies. Seventy-five percent of the freshmen class have been exposed and engaged in tutoring. It has mostly taken place during school hours, including many one-on-one sessions and some group sessions. Student tutors receive a stipend and service credits and are gaining valuable experience that will serve them well in the future.

March 2024 Update from staff member Jamie Rees

I think the fall has been excellent. There have been a lot more feedback/requests from other teachers who want to see more tutors or more of our current tutors in their classes. There has been a lot of expressed interest from students—word of the program is trickling through the school. More seniors have applied to become tutors next semester and a number of juniors have reached out expressing a desire to be part of the program next year.

From my end, I am very encouraged by the diversity of our tutors. Some of them are 4.0 students, some are not. All of them bring different and interesting life experience and perspectives to their work and are able to reach different students. I really appreciate that we now have three bilingual tutors as well as several others who have completed AP Spanish and want to use their language skills to reach kids and help out.

I am also encouraged—because this is the part, I think, that is most important to me—by the degree of difficulty this program has posed to our tutors. They are some of our best students, some of them haven’t had a meaningful challenge in school in some time and they have been pushed by their experiences, forced to ask questions of the school and society they live in, and been very emotionally invested in the success and failures of their work.

I am hopeful, over time, to construct a more concrete system of feedback/data collection. For now, it is mostly anecdotal, but I am working on some surveys of tutors and staff to help us grow and improve.

Note from President Henry Brashen: This tutoring project has far exceeded our expectations, but there is more work to be done. GGG can continue to support this wonderful program as it grows and develops. I encourage you to donate to this very worthy cause. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

*Mentoring Program*

This program is still being developed by Darlene Daggs, working with Dr. Hart.

Please Donate!

Print out and use this Donation Form or click the button below to donate via credit card on PayPal. Choose your desired donation amount. It’s helpful if you tell us whether the money should go to scholarships, the Unhoused/Student Assistance Fund, or the student-run Garfield Messenger, as well as if it is a gift in honor or or in memory of a particular person. Just open the text box by clicking on the + sign. Thanks in advance!