Nonprofit That Helps Teachers Gets Help For Day of Service
DENVER (CBS4) – During Day of Service, Xcel Energy is setting up 77 volunteer projects. RAFT Colorado is one of them. RAFT stands for Resource Area for Teachers. The organization provides teachers the material they need to give students hands-on experiences in the classroom.
LINK: Register for a Day of Service Project
"We work with companies, and they donate materials. And we add the educational content to it, whether it's through idea sheets or the kits or the reimaginers who work at RAFT to help teachers bring the magic and materials to kids in their classrooms," said Stephanie Welsh, the executive director at RAFT Colorado.
RAFT Colorado was founded ten years ago. It's based on a similar organization in San Jose, California. Teachers can buy a membership and then have access to low cost project kits in art and STEM, school supplies, and arts & crafts materials.
"We're a membership organization, and we do sell the materials. But they're crazy affordable, you fill a giant shopping bag costs $2.50 cents," Welsh explained.
Welsh said that RAFT Colorado runs on the help of volunteers, so they are thrilled to be taking part in Day of Service.
"Xcel volunteers will be helping us with building activity kits. Activity kits are just a Godsend for teachers because not only do they save them money, they save them the time it takes to set up , and find all the materials and prepare them," Welsh told CBS4.
Xcel Energy's Day of Service is Saturday, September 8th. RAFT Colorado is only asking for 22 volunteers, so sign-up quick before all the positions are filled.