Donations

Donations to the Growers

Probably the most important thing you can donate to the Growers is your time and
your good ideas. Please see the Volunteer section on the Home Page.
However, as our programs grow year by year it becomes more expensive each
year to just maintain the existing programs even without any new ones. HISD does
not fund any of our programs and while they encourage Oak Forest and other
schools to have organizations like the PTA and the Growers, no public funds are
available to pay for these programs.

So far, most of our operating funds and much of our capital investment has come
from grants from the Humble ISD Education Foundation and ExxonMobil. We have
been able to stretch those dollars by lots of hard physical work by the Growers
and obtaining discounts and free products from suppliers such as Lowe's and
Alspaugh's Ace Hardware. We are mostly a "hands on" organization and do the
building, planting, and upkeep through volunteers and our alliance with the
Kingwood Country Club.

In the 2009-2010 school year, it will cost us about $900 to buy plants, seeds, mulch,
fertilizer, food storage bags, tools, and other consumable items for the 5th grade
vegetable garden. The gardens for the Kindergarten and First Grades are smaller
but require about $300 each to maintain. The beds by the front doors for
hummingbirds and butterflies require several plantings each year and will cost
about $500 this year. These are only four of the ten areas we maintain. Another
unfortunate expenditure each of the two years has been vandalism. Closed circuit
TV cameras have been purchased and installed and hopefully this will help
eliminate some of these costs. All told our budget will be about $5500 for all the
areas of the school funded through the Growers' nature programs.

Our funds are collected and administered by the staff of Oak Forest and the
Humble ISD Education Foundation. They are subject to audit by HISD. And, finally
donations qualify, in most cases, for
income tax deduction.

All this said, we ask that each student contribute $5 at the beginning of each
school year to offset some of the operating expenses. We are always willing to
accept additional cash donations from parents or other community members. We
know that asking you for $5 for each of your children at the beginning of the
school year may strain your budget, but we hope you will look at it as an
investment in your child's future. We encourage parents to ask their children to
earn this money or save it by forgoing a movie or other expenditure. We always
must remember that none of our grant funding is automatic. If we were to lose our
funding from our corporate and foundation sponsors, our programs would have to
be greatly curtailed.

If you wish to make a donation or you work for an employer who will match
contributions or know of any other source of funding, we would be happy to talk
to you.

Cash contributions can be made or checks to the HISD Education Foundation
should be designated to the Oak Forest Growers. Put these donations in an
envelope marked for the Oak Forest Growers. These can be given to
any teacher or to the staff at the front desk.

If you have any questions on donations, please contact Vivian Cardoso at
281-641-2886 or via email.