For the last few years, our Homework Help program has benefitted from the presence of high school volunteers working with the children. Many of them come from independent schools including the Trevor Day School and Brearley. This fall, two students from Trevor, Emmett Fajgenbaum and Anna Sofia Martorella were dismayed to find out that Homework Help was postponed until winter due to a funding shortfall. We have the generous support of other foundations for the program but the timing of the applications and funding led to a delayed return for Homework Help.
Emmett and Anna Sofia did not take “no” for an answer. They put out an appeal to everyone they knew on social media, with a link to donate and a plea to spread the request far and wide. Their contacts responded and the $10,000 to support the program for the fall was raised in 3 days. They were very surprised to receive a large donation from someone located as far away as Japan!
Volunteering has become an important experience for our volunteers. In Emmett’s words, “After some time, we understood that many of the kids also needed social-emotional support, not just tutoring help…We could do that for them. Anyone could teach simple subtraction problems, however, often the children would specifically want us to teach them. This level of trust is something we will never forget.”
Thank you, Emmett and Anna Sofia, and all of the people who came forward to support Homework Help in its time of need. We are truly grateful. See our volunteers and teachers in action at a recent Homework Help session in the slideshow below. More blog posts will be coming up featuring our other volunteers and Homework Help.