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Brittany Hutchinson demonstrating the pipette that she raised money to fund. through the Donors Choose program.

By Whitney Hamrick | May 24, 2012

Teachers daunted by the shortage of school funding in Seminole County may have a source of relief.

Brittany Hutchinson, who teaches bioengineering at Lyman High School in Longwood, raised more than $700 to pay for micropipettes and other equipment through her partnership with a website called donorschoose.org.

"Ms. Hutchinson did a great job of promoting her project through donorschoose.org," said Tony Williams, who is the Horace Mann representative for Seminole County. "We work with the schools and we want to see the educators succeed."

Donors Choose is a nonprofit organization that provides a platform for donors and public school teachers to connect in order to fund necessary classroom materials they would otherwise have to do without in a tough economy.

The website was established by Horace Mann, an insurance company founded by teachers to focus on the financial needs of educators. The website was first launched in February 2011 and has since contributed $1.3 million to school projects nationwide.

Williams arrived in Seminole County three months ago, and during his search to learn more about the community, he found Hutchinson's profile.

The rest is here:
Teachers experiment with fundraising pays off