Minneapolis and St. Paul Teachers Can Apply For Teacher Grants from Kids In Need and Command Brand
Command Brand from 3M has announced its partnership with The Kids In Need Foundation, a national, non-profit organization dedicated to providing free school supplies to economically disadvantaged school children and under-funded teachers. As part of the partnership, Command Brand is sponsoring grants of the 2014 Kids In Need Teacher Grants program to fund classroom projects conducted by teachers in the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts.
Grants of $250 will be awarded to teachers who wish to conduct innovative classroom projects but lack the funds to do so. In most cases, these are special projects teachers usually must pay for out of their own pockets if they want to present them to their students. All teachers certified for pre-K through 12th grade in Minneapolis and St. Paul are eligible to apply. Applications will be available on the Kids In Need website, www.kinf.org, beginning July 15. The deadline for submission is September 30.
“For seventeen years, the Foundation has been funding exceptional classroom projects through our Kids In Need Teacher Grants program,” said Dave Smith, executive director of the Kids In Need Foundation. “We welcome Command Brand to the program and foresee that the grants awarded as a result of the sponsorship to mean the improvement of skills for hundreds of students in the Twin Cities.”
“Teachers work incredibly hard, and we wanted to do something special to celebrate those in our local community,” said Kate Semersky, business unit manager for Command Brand. “Through the 2014 Kids In Need Teacher Grants program, we’re excited to give Minneapolis and St. Paul educators and students access to classroom supplies they may not otherwise have had. Command Brand Products are designed for easy and damage-free transformations in any room, and we look forward to seeing the creative ways they are used to bring educational projects to life.”
Teachers applying for the grants will be asked to submit projects that utilize Command Brand Products in innovative ways to enhance the academic skills of their students.
“One thing we’ve learned over the past seventeen years is that teachers are creative and resourceful in their use of all kinds of materials to engage their students in the learning process,” said Smith. “We are looking forward to reading the innovative ideas that will be generated by these grants.”
About the Kids In Need Foundation
The Kids In Need Foundation is a national 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1995. The Foundation’s mission is to prepare children to learn and succeed by providing free school supplies to students most in need. Its National Network of Resource Centers includes 32 facilities where teachers from low-income schools go to obtain free school supplies for their students. School supply giveaways in communities not served by Resource Centers are accommodated through the School Ready Supplies program, and students who have gone through natural disasters are helped to get back to their normal routines with new backpacks and supplies through the Second Responder program. In addition, two Teacher Grant programs award pre-K through 12th grade educators with funding to provide innovative learning experiences for students. The Kids In Need Foundation has distributed more than $550 million in school supplies since its founding, directly benefiting 3.6 million students and more than 120,000 teachers annually, and has awarded $1.5 million in grants to teachers. Kids In Need has earned the Gold GuideStar Exchange Seal, demonstrating its commitment to transparency, and has consistently received high ratings from Charity Navigator, indicating that it operates in a fiscally responsible way and outperforms most other charities in America. For more information, visit www.kinf.org. Join Kids In Need Foundation on Twitter at twitter.com/kidsinneed and Facebook at facebook.com/kidsinneed.
About Command Brand Products
Command Brand Products offer a wide variety of damage-free organizing and decorating solutions to transform your home, office, apartment or dorm room. Unlike products that require nails, screws, tacks or messy adhesives, the products use a stretch-release technology that holds strongly and removes cleanly without damaging surfaces – leaving no holes, marks, sticky residue or stains. Command Brand Products are available at home centers and mass merchandise, drug and craft stores nationwide and are also available online. Visit Command.com for more information.
About 3M
3M captures the spark of new ideas and transforms them into thousands of ingenious products. Our culture of creative collaboration inspires a never-ending stream of powerful technologies that make life better. 3M is the innovation company that never stops inventing. With $31 billion in sales, 3M employs 89,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.
3M and Command are trademarks of 3M. © 3M 2014.
Hunter Public RelationsKim Ciocon, 212-679-6600kciocon@hunterpr.comwww.hunterpr.comor3M Construction and Home Improvement Markets DivisionKarin Gil, 651-737-3105kgil@mmm.com
