Kimberly Yam
Associate Editor, Good News, The Huffington Post
This organization in Montana is helping meet the needs of underprivileged students discreetly and respectfully.
My Student In Need, a nonprofit that services schools across the state, runs an online program where teachers request necessities and other items their underserved students need, while others can offer to fulfill them. What’s more, the students’ identities are kept anonymous in the process.
Since the organization’s launch back in 2013, donors have filled more than 1,500 requests for students in need. The group’s goal is to help students get adequate resources without making them feel uncomfortable, Kim Wombolt, the organization’s executive director, told The Huffington Post.
“No person ― whether it’s a student or an adult ― likes to be in a position where they have to ask for help,” Wombolt said. “By providing a forum for students to get assistance without having to publish that they are, they can ask for help with dignity.”
My Student in Need is starting out the new school year with twice as many schools signed on for support compared to last year.
During the summer, My Student in Need added the Billings, Helena, Kalispell and Butte school districts to its online forum of anonymous needs requests.
My Student in Need was founded in 2013 as a project of My Neighbor in Need. It began in Great Falls and has now expanded to 18 school districts, totaling more than 130 schools in the program or working to join the program.
Teachers, counselors and other school administrators can log in to My Student in Need and submit requests for items that help eliminate barriers to a student’s learning and success. Some of the most popular requests are for winter coats, shoes and general clothing.
“No one thinks of a pair of shoes as a barrier to education,” Executive Director Kim Wombolt said. “But think about that student in the winter with holes in his shoes and cold feet. Simple, basic needs can be met and we can get rid of the barriers.”
When a teacher, counselor or administrator sees a student in need, they submit an anonymous request online to My Student in Need with a brief description of the age, grade and need of the anonymous student. Donors can select districts and individual schools to view the needs and can submit a request to fulfill the need.
My Student in Need usually disperses personal hygiene
My Student in Need usually disperses personal hygiene products in bulk to not single out individuals in need of products. (Photo: Photo courtesy of My Student in Need)
Of the 18 school districts partnered with My Student in Need, Billings, Great Falls and Missoula already have submitted a total of 26 needs requests for this school year. Great Falls accounts for 15 of these.
“We’ve fulfilled 1,500 needs in the last three years,” Wombolt said. “We’re averaging about 300 needs a year.”
Needs requests are often filled by monetary donations that are turned into gift cards. Teachers will often receive gift cards for general clothing items and either shop for their younger students or take their older students shopping.
Wombolt said last year Grammy-award winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval donated a trumpet to a fifth-grader at Paxon Elementary School in Missoula after hearing word of a request through My Student in Need.
My Student in Need receives several requests for musical instrument rentals, Wombolt said.
My Student in Need hopes to add 200 more schools to its roster this year and have 300 schools by 2018. The nonprofit is in talks to expand nationally, but Wombolt said it is not quite ready yet.
Representatives from My Student in Need have been invited to speak in Florida at this year’s National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth conference about their program, its success and rapid growth.
Over summer break, My Student In Need nearly doubled in size.
At the end of June, 70 schools statewide participated in the nonprofit. Two months later, there are 130 schools participating, and My Student In Need executive director Kim Wombolt is being called to speak on the national level.
Since September 2013, My Student In Need has served as an intermediary between need requests and anonymous donors. It was born of My Neighbor In Need, founded in Great Falls by Dave Snuggs, a way for people to “ask for help with dignity,” Wombolt said.
“Nothing really seemed to be moving,” Wombolt said of My Student’s growth.
Thank you to the Alice Lee Lund Trust for the generous donation of $20,000 toward the expansion of My Student in Need in Montana. Beginning in the fall of 2016 in addition to the 70 schools My Student in Need already serves, Kalispell, Helena and Butte will be joining My Student in Need bringing the total number of schools with My Student in Need available to 103 schools. As the school year progresses, My Student in Need is working to add another 97 schools across the state of Montana. It is the generosity of the community and funder’s like the Alice Lee Lund Trust that make My Student in Need possible and allow us to broker goodwill and bring hope to the hopeless.
My Neighbor In Need kicked off its ‘Dime A Day’ campaign in Great Falls on Monday.
They are asking for donations to help fund their free deliveries and pay for operating costs.
The last two years, the organization raised roughly $28,000.
This year they are hoping to raise $40,000.
Organizers say they are sending out a mailer this week with more information about the fundraiser.
“We have a wonderful community here in Great Falls and we have grown tremendously over the last three years and that’s through all the support of this community,” said My Neighbor In Need director Kim Wombolt.
The Dime a Day campaign will continue until July 13th.
You can donate on the My Neighbor in Need website, in person at their office in Times Square building, or through the mail by sending your donation to 525 Central Ave #M2, Great Falls, MT, 59401.
My Neighbor in Need fulfilled its 1st need on March 21, 2012. After 4 years, we have, through the generosity of our community fulfilled over 6,600 Neighbor in Need requests and over 1,400 Student in Need Requests. Founder, Dave Snuggs originally hoped to fulfill about 200 need requests per year. Please watch our anniversary slide show and celebrate with us as we celebrate our 4th year anniversary.
Great Falls, MT: My Student in Need, a division of My Neighbor in Need, a 501c3, non-profit organization announced that it has created a new logo and has revised and launched it new website.
“Updating the My Student in Need website and logo to partner with the My Neighbor in Need website, positions the organization to meet continuing requests for service,” said Kim Wombolt, Executive Director.
As of the 2015, Christmas Break, My Student in Need was operating in 72 schools and had completed 1,325 need fulfillments since it launched on September 17, 2013.
My Student in Need is the creation of Great Falls resident, Dave Snuggs, and through a partnership with numerous school districts throughout Montana, allows for selected School Teacher/Administrators to submit a request for help with a specific need, such as school supplies, clothing, lunch money, etc. for their Students in Need, all set in an anonymous format.
The logo and the revised website was created by 406 Marketing & Design, the same company that recently revised the www.myneighborinneed.org website. “When the idea of having My Student In Need re-designed came up we were thrilled to be able to contribute. The heart, vision, and people behind My Student In Need is absolutely amazing and we just feel blessed to be a part of it. Our hope is that this redesigned website that reflects the heart of their cause will help My Student In Need reach the next level and impact the lives of even more students,” said Josh Dardis, Owner, 406 Marketing & Design.
www.mystudentinneed.org is available for free to any school wishing to help their Students in Need.
We have come to expect generosity at Christmas time. Whether it be gifts under the Christmas tree, or a substantial check written to the charity of your choice, the act of giving has come to define the spirit of the season.
Yet random acts of generosity from a complete stranger – that’s a rarer and more surprising Christmas commodity.
Accompanied by a small group of elves, an anonymous Santa distributed good cheer to unsuspecting Great Falls shoppers Wednesday morning. The gifts were not life changing: a rush-hour breakfast sandwich, a few gallons of gas, a couple bags of groceries. But they were all that was needed to spread an honest spirit of good among those lucky few fortunate to receive the gifts.
The team at DaVita Great Falls Dialysis, as part of its “DaVita Way of Giving” campaign, presented a check for $2,000 to My Neighbor In Need on Monday.
The DaVita Way Of Giving program is designed to help communities in a way that sends ripples of their service, leadership, and care.
My Neighbor In Need suffered a setback with a small fire in its Times Square headquarters recently, and Davita decided to step in and help financially.
A small fire and subsequent sprinkler drenching inside the Times Square building caused some damage, but hasn’t dampened spirits for the nonprofit organizations housed in the facility.
In fact, My Neighbor in Need, a nonprofit organization that uses the Internet to connect donors with people in need of everyday goods, announced Tuesday — a week after a small fire was started in its store by a candle — that the organization has now filled its 6,000th wish.
“This has been an interesting week on karma’s roller coaster,” said Dave Snuggs, founder and board president of My Neighbor in Need. “Today we’re back on the upside — the joy side.”
Robbyn Mays, her husband and their two small children moved here from Washington a few months ago because her husband found work as a welder. While they tried to save up enough money to afford an apartment, they lived in a tent at Dick’s RV Park. When the tent was destroyed and some of their belongings were soaked due to inclement weather, they moved into different motels until they found an apartment. St. Vincent de Paul worked to get the family clothed, but referred Mays and her husband to My Neighbor in Need for furniture.
My Neighbor In Need kicked off its ‘Dime A Day’ campaign in Great Falls on Monday.