Josephine Sinclair ( left) and Sarai Williams (right) at Willow Creek School Library. Photos courtesy of Willow Creek Academy.
Social media’s waters are teeming with requests for money. But few have cherubic second graders Josephine Sinclair and Sarai Williams, both age seven, leading their crowdfunding campaign—while arguing whether unicorns are fiction or nonfiction. The fundraising effort “Dr. Seuss Wants You!” went live August 7 on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.com with the two girls aiming to raise funds to restore the school library at Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito, California.
With Josephine’s mom, Kate Stohr, a co-founder of Architecture for Humanity who is experienced at fundraising herself, and Sarai’s mother, Shanti Williams, a library assistant at the San Francisco Public Library’s Richmond Branch, the girls had some solid muscle behind them.
Crowdsourcing on Indiegogo wasn’t their first attempt at raising funds. Initially, the girls launched a lemonade stand—pricing their concoction at $108 a glass, according to their Indiegogo video. Not making much of a dent toward the money they needed for books, furniture, computers—and even a school librarian—the two headed to cyberspace to try their luck there as one of the girls, Josephine, is an avid YouTuber, says Stohr.
“We thought we would make money if we made a video,” says Josephine. “We kind of thought it would be fun.”
Fun is what the two are clearly having in two videos that are live on their Indiegogo page. In the video, the two are shown shelving books and challenging their tiny peers to read a book to parents—if mom and dad pledge $5 to the project.
Willow Creek Academy, a 13-year-old charter school, lost its school library in 2013 when the school, which shared the location, merged with another school, says Susan Newmeyer, president of The Willow Creek Foundation. Parents volunteered to help, donating books, rigging an Apple computer to check out titles, and kitting the two-story space with some furniture so the 350 K-8 students could come for tutoring and occasional reading.
Sarai and her mother, Shanti Williams, (left) and Josephine and her mother, Kate Stohr (right).
The Sausalito Public Library is just a mile away and is staffed with a “wonderful librarian,” Erin Wilson, says Newmeyer. However, she also explains that typically both the parents of many Willow Creek’s students work, so taking their kids to the library in the afternoon is not possible for all.
“Parents don’t have time to take kids after-school to the library,” she says. “That’s why it’s important to create a culture and appreciation for literacy at the school.”
A goal of $20,000 is set for phase one of the fundraiser—the funds will go toward grade-specific materials, more computers, and the part-time salary of a school librarian, 10 hours a week.
“But we’d like [the librarian] every day,” says Royce Connor, now in his second year as head of the school, who’d learned about the campaign after the girls’ parents had already started the process.
To date, the campaign has raised north of $4,800, about 24 percent of their goal—and approximately 11 percent of the $54,000 the school believes they’ll need to completely restore the school library. Tons of “perks” (services or goods backers receive in exchange for donating) remain unclaimed online—from a personal thank you video ($25) to even a video chat from Josephine and Sarai as they read a favorite bedtime story ($1,000).
With the fundraiser live until October 6, the girls have a few more surprises they plan to launch, including books donated from author Isabel Allende. The girls have another video to unveil and have already absorbed one educational lesson from the time they’ve invested in helping their school library.
“About the unicorn,” says Sarai, “I think we both think it’s not real.”