PNC: Alliance with Donors Choose Benefits Thousands of Pre-K Children

After her pre-K students were dismissed for the day, Saphronie Harrell and her fellow pre-K teachers at Barnaby Manor Elementary School in Oxon Hill, MD, were asked to gather for a meeting with the school’s principal. But, when a PNC team arrived in the classroom bringing balloons, flowers, gifts, a photographer and a video crew, shock turned to tears when Ms. Harrell found out she was a PNC Grow Up Great® / DonorsChoose.org “Teacher Hero.”

The school administrative staff and entire pre-K team were on hand to see Ms. Harrell’s recognition. Her award included a $2,000 DonorsChoose.org gift card to support her next classroom projects and another $2,000 gift card to help support project requests from other teachers. Her fellow pre-K teachers were each given a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift card as well.

For Harrell, it was a happy ending to a rewarding process.

When it comes to teaching young children, the slogan for Harrell and her pre-K co-workers is “We’re the welcome mat to education.”

This is the second year that the alliance is helping to provide new educational resources and experiences to Head Start and public pre-K classrooms across the communities PNC serves.

Fall Match Offer

On Sept. 17, PNC launched a match offer, through which it will match donations to pre-K and Head Start classroom projects in the areas around the country where PNC does business. PNC will match every dollar donated to fund requests with a project goal of up to $1,500. The match offer will run until mid-November, or until designated funds are exhausted.

Early Success

Launched in April 2017, the $5 million alliance with DonorsChoose.org already has made a significant impact. Nearly 700,000 children in 21 states and Washington, D.C., have benefited from classroom resources provided through DonorsChoose.org and match funding by PNC. More than 14,000 projects have been fully funded.

In Amanda Tressler’s Akron, OH pre-K classroom, the project that has had the most impact on her young students is “We will master the alphabet in pre-K!”

To accomplish her teaching goals, Tressler’s young students used alphabet sounds teaching tubs, which includes tubs of colorful things that begin with each letter. For example, the “W” tub includes play pieces such as a watermelon, a watering can and a walrus.

“At the beginning of preschool, almost half the class did not know any letters or sounds,” recounts Tressler. “Now that we are getting close to the end of the year, all of my students have shown growth on uppercase letters, lowercase letters and letter sounds.”

Learn more about PNC's alliance with DonorsChoose.org »