Sonic donates more than $2,000 to local schools through DonorsChoose

Sonic Drive-In’s Sonic Foundation donated $2,221 to local area schools during May’s Teacher Appreciation Month. The donation came from Sonic’s Limeades for Learning initiative, a program funded from a portion of the sales of each drink, slush, or shake sold. Sonic then partnered with a nonprofit organization called DonorsChoose.

DonorsChoose is a nonprofit which was created to help teachers meet the needs of their individual classrooms. Teachers create a “project” by requesting the needed resources on the DonorsChoose website. Individuals can look up a specific project to make a donation or a project can be chosen at random. Once a project is fully-funded, the DonorsChoose staff purchase and ship the resources to the teacher.

During the month of May, Sonic matched the $1.5 million donated directly to the DonorsChoose nonprofit for teacher requests from all over the country. Eighteen teachers from North County, Kingston, and Central created 22 projects with DonorsChoose, and all but eight projects were funded through the partnership between the nonprofit and Sonic matching private donations.

In the North County School District, one teacher was able to secure all of the basic back-to-school supplies needed for her classroom. Another teacher requested and received items to create a calming corner for her special education classroom.

Teachers in the Kingston School District created eight separate projects and all but one was fully funded. Money donated paid for basic supplies, comfortable classroom seating, supplies for creative learning projects, and added books to classroom libraries.

Central School District teachers received funding toward their projects but are still in need of donations for full funding to receive requested materials. North County and Kingston educators are still seeking donations for some of their projects, as well.

In order to donate directly to a project or to create a project for a classroom visit donorschoose.org. People can also help Sonic continue to match donations by purchasing slushes, shakes, and other drinks.

Jeannie Barton-Northrup is a reporter for the Daily Journal.