Funding Education with the Blockchain, Volume 1: Books and Wobble Stools!

in #steemiteducation7 years ago (edited)

It is well-documented that education funding in the United States leaves much to be desired.

Just this week, my local newspaper ran a front page expose about the deteriorating conditions in some of the local schools.

As the husband of an educator, I know these struggles all too well. My wife is currently a third grade teacher in the town we live in, and while she does not have leaky ceilings and crumbling walls like some of the schools in the above article, she does suffer from a lack of funding if she needs resources for her classroom.

Funding education in the United States is very political. Each state's government is in charge of education funding, and depending on the state, this may further be delegated to individual county school systems. Education-related expenses are where the majority of property tax dollars in my local county go, but without a large increase in taxes, it seems like there are fewer and fewer dollars to go around.

What if the blockchain can change that?

There are various other avenues that teachers may pursue to obtain additional funding for their classrooms, but they are often donation-based and may not be fully funded. Today, I'm hoping to change that. Let's use Steemit to help fund education projects across the United States.

My wife currently has two active projects on a website called Donors Choose. Teachers across the United States may submit project requests to the website and others may choose to donate to the projects, similar to many Crowd-funding websites like Kickstarter or IndieGoGo. DonorsChoose.org is a non-profit organization, so donations are tax-deductible, and often large organizations and celebrities will make donations to specific projects near their deadlines to ensure they receive funding.

My wife has used the website to fund two prior projects, which have allowed her to obtain many helpful items for her classroom.

With this in mind, 100% of the rewards from this post will be used to fund my wife's two active projects on DonorsChoose.org

The liquid SBD will be transferred to an exchange and cashed out, and I will also transfer an amount of STEEM equal to the STEEM Power payout from this post as well. I will then make donations via DonorsChoose with the funds that have been converted from this post's rewards and I'll share the entire process in a future blog for accountability and transparency.

You may also directly transfer STEEM or SBD to my account and I'll earmark it for the transfer once this post pays out.

If you're interested, before you go click the upvote button, let me tell you a little about what your vote will help provide for my wife's classroom.

Project 1: Wiggle While We Work


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The first project is for funding to purchase several wobble stools, which are small stools that children may sit on that are not level like a typical chair, but can rotate and pivot based on the child's movements. It allows them to wiggle about while sitting at a desk working on an assignment. Here's an excerpt from the project description:

I cringe whenever I see the media portray classrooms as a room with rows of desks with every child sitting stiff backed in a chair, facing forward, listening to their teacher lecture. While that may be the classroom of the past, that will not be my classroom. With your help, this is what my classroom could be.

Imagine a classroom where kids are engaging with their peers, using their hands, minds and voices to experience learning in a way that makes them look forward coming to school.

These kids are in a classroom that makes them feel welcome and respected. They are given a choice in how they learn. They are not asked to sit still and be quiet all day long. Sitting still is hard! Kids shouldn't have to focus on that when they are in school to focus on learning.

These wobble stools will give kids the opportunity to let out their excitement and energy while they learn. They will improve their posture and core strength. It will be a way I can show them that I care and I want them to feel comfortable in their classroom. Learning doesn't have to happen at a desk. Learning happens when kids can be kids. Let them move! Let them learn.

The full cost of the project is $675 (you can see the itemized costs on the project's description page).

Project 2: Stories That Inspire

Books open doors to fantastic places, especially for children. My wife teaches third grade (8-9 year olds), and she often reads books to them during class time in order to increase their comprehension abilities and open their eyes to the world around them. Here's an excerpt from the project description:

One of my favorite things to do as a teacher, is read to my kids. They sit on the floor in front of my rocking chair and, for 20 minutes, they can all learn together. Most of the day, I differentiate my teaching to meet the needs of each individual learner. But, during those precious 20 minutes, I can reach everyone at the same time.

The stories I read to my students teach them more than just literacy - it teaches them how to be kind, brave, strong and resilient.

I choose books that teach growth mindset - the research proven idea that you are not born with a set level of "smartness". You can grow your brain by choosing hard tasks and perseverance. I choose books that introduce kids to people who have faced adversity and overcome them in order to make a difference in the world.

With your help, I can teach my children to love the magic of reading. Not only that, but you will help me inspire my kids to try new things - challenging things. They will learn the power of YET! You can help me introduce them to inspiring people of history and give them the courage to stand up for what they believe in.

The full cost of this project is $333. You can see a full list of the books that my wife hopes to purchase with the funds from this project on its description page.

The Goal of this Post

Your vote on this post will help purchase these stools and books for my wife's classroom. Right now, almost half of the required funds have been given by other donors. At the time of this post, Project 1 still needs $334, and Project 2 still needs $208. I believe that we could easily fund both projects with votes from across Steemit, and I also believe that this is just the beginning.

In the future, I plan to have a blog series dedicated to funding a project from DonorsChoose.org, whether it is one from my wife's classroom or not, I believe we can show teachers in the United States the power of the STEEM Blockchain. I plan to link to the posts in the comment I can make with the donation so that the teachers will know where the donations came from.

I know there are many educators present across the Steemit platform. The efforts of initiatives like @steemiteducation have helped propel education-related topics to the forefront. I hope that other teachers will be able to use the STEEM blockchain to fund projects for their classrooms, and I believe donating through DonorsChoose is a great way to keep the donations transparent and honest.

Once again, I am planning to donate all of the rewards from this post (SBD and an equal amount of STEEM to the SP payout) directly to the two projects described above. Let's use our stakes in the platform to directly impact the education of students across America!

If you have any questions about the project or the process, please let me know. Thank you in advance for your generosity and kindness toward this initiative. I value education, and I want children to have the best resources possible. My wife is a fantastic educator, so I hope you'll help support her classroom!

*I will also accept direct SBD and STEEM transfers to my account. I'll add that to the total, and it will get transferred as one lump sum once this post pays out.

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Hi @ethandsmith! You have received 0.1 SBD tip + 0.02 SBD @tipU from @tattoodjay :)

Check out new tipuvote! feature :)

Please make sure I know about your planned series and where to find new entries. You can count on a vote and more from me ... every time you post.

I certainly will. I know that my wife might have other teachers at her school who also have projects, so I'll be sure to seek out people I know directly before pulling projects at random. But then again, helping a random project could bring more attention to the blockchain, so hopefully everyone wins.

Thank you so much for your support.

I am supporting this post and your wife's project for the books. With that being said now I will comment on the current education system.
The problem with education is not funding, the problem is that the system still operates like it did in the 1800's. There is no need to assemble kids in school rooms in this day and age. Each school district could supply a laptop computer and a wireless card that would only access the school district's wireless signal to each student. Give the lessons over the air waves.
This would eliminate huge amounts of expenditure in building, buses, fuel, maintenance & food service workers and eliminate all the school shootings.
Most places would not go for such a setup because the parents of the students would be in an uproar that they would have to find someone to sit with their kids at their home, IE; babysitter. That is what most schools have become, sitting services so both parents can work.
There are better ways than the current way, people just need to start thinking instead of keeping doing.
Just my thoughts, good luck with the projects.

Thank you for your support!

It's interesting to consider flipping the traditional school model on its head, but I think ultimately, children must go somewhere during the day where they can be supervised. Implementation of technology into the classroom has been something great to watch, though. At my wife's school, each of her students have a Chromebook they can use throughout the day, and they are allowed to take them home.

One new initiative this year at my wife's school is that they've done away with homework. So far it seems to be a very popular strategy that several other schools in our county are considering.

There are always various considerations to be made about the state of education, but I'm hoping that we can start showing teachers across the nation that the blockchain is useful for funding specific projects to help children learn better.

Once again, thank you for stopping by.

With me education is a subject that is best discussed in verbal format rather than typed. One needs to really go back in our history and explore how the department of education came about and the foundations that supported the creation of it, it is just to much to try and type out and I won't bother you with it. Let me just say that the people who are in charge have us right where they want us , so don't look for any meaningful changes anytime soon.

My personal beliefs are that it should be state funded (as intended), not federally funded. Apart from that, I think the social interaction is good and healthy, so I like the classroom setting as a whole. That being said, I can also see how giving more school choice and opening up more options and possibilities for education could prove to be beneficial for many students and help them to learn more, based on their learning styles and preferences.

Also, we really need to better evaluate how the money is spent. Athletic Directors and Principals should be qualified individuals, not just old football coaches. Superintendents should not be pulling in 250-300k while teachers are making 40k. Funding for certain sports or activities should not be as much as a dozen teachers' salaries combined while other sports and extracurriculars have to do their own fundraisers just to get the bare minimum equipment and supplies.

I am gladly putting my vote in this post. I am all for helping the kids and improving their educational experience. I know I hated those small wooden benches I had to sit in for a longer period of time. Someone would think about making seats at least little bit more comfortable would improve kids learning experience. I am sure it would for me as most of those benches are small and my legs are very long.lol

Love the project for inspiring books. Inspired kids learn better. Motivation and inspiration is the key to learning. Plus it can inspire kids to do amazing things as well in their lives. :)

Love the initiative, my friend. I hope people will recognize this great cause and upvote this post to help you raise a great amount of money to improve the learning experience for the kids. :)

Have an amazing day. :)

We'll just have to call the stool company and get them to make one for people with long legs!

Thank you for your support and all of the kind words! It means so much!

You should. Call the airplane companies as well.. lol Their seats are truly discrimination against tall people. lol

You are more than welcome. I am happy to comment and be here. :)

It is a sad state of affairs in the West. Educating our children is of paramount importance and yet it is a struggle to find the resources they need. Then you have professional athletes making millions and millions, our priorities are way out of alignment.
The block chain does raise an interesting idea though. Donations through crypto could definitely help, but it might be a localized and temporary solution. I still like the idea though. Hope you're able to raise some decent SBD for a good cause

I'm hoping that every little bit will help. We were brainstorming about ways to help fund the project, and I figured I'd give this a shot, since it's fairly easy for people to click upvote to support a cause!

There are plenty of things wrong with the education system, but when I hear my wife tell stories of how she helps individual children, I know that causes like this are worth it. I'm glad I can help support education. I appreciate your support.

Hi @ethandsmith! You have received 0.1 SBD tip from @traciyork!

Check out new tipuvote! feature :)

It is one of the great things about steemit and the community that can drive and support initiatives like this

Both her projects are superb ideas and let me help in my little way to make them achievable tip!

Thank you very much for your contribution to the projects, Jay. I really appreciate it!

Just helping in my little way my friend

This is a good initiative to help raise funds for a good cause. Like @asyrafahamed, I too am surprised to find that a developed country like US face the same issues like us here. I guessed politics rear its ugly head everywhere. Hope your post managed to garner the support and funds it needed to provide a comfortable education environment for the future leaders of tomorrow

Thank you for your support. There will always be issues with education funding, but I'm hoping that these initiatives will allow us to promote the blockchain as a source of funding for education! The possibilities are endless!

My support to you by upvoting and writing a post about this

https://steemit.com/education/@alvinauh/let-s-fund-an-education-project-with-steem

Thank you so much! Your post is doing very well so far, and I really appreciate the support. The more people we involve, the more projects we can fund!

I upped my vote to the maximum amount I could give you. Not much, but then every little bit helps in the world I suppose. I love this concept, and the mission of your post to help provide funds for your wife's school projects. And naturally, the idea of more books for the children grabbed my attention :)

Good luck with your goal, I wish you every success.

I really appreciate your vote, no matter what the amount! Every vote helps get us closer to reaching the goal. I'm excited to cash out the rewards and put them toward the projects. I plan to blog about the entire process, so you'll be updated as it happens!

Thanks again.

I saw that you have successfully completed this, so well done. Exciting news. It's like a Steem Kickstarter.

Yes, indeed! I'm very pleased with the outcome, and I hope that I can continue the initiative in the future! Thank you for your support!

This is a fantastic idea! I think it is great you are using the blockchain to help fun it to be honest. It is so unbelievable that states and educational boards and all this political stuff can hinder the educational system which is so necessary. It is so important and yet so low on the totem pole of stuff needing to be done and varies per area. I hope she gets the funding she is seeking, no doubt she will now.

Hey @topkpop! Thank you for your comment and support. I hope you saw my follow-up post about her project getting funding based on liquid donations I have already received. The even better news is that both projects are now fully funded thanks to other donations and a matching program yesterday by Donors Choose.

I'll be able to use the payout from this post to fund even more things for my wife's classroom, so thank you for your support. I'm excited to share more blogs about the materials when they arrive!

This is an awesome initiative. Good luck with it.

I really appreciate your support. Thank you so much.

I won't get on my soapbox, but this is one reason why we need to get rid of national education control and let the states keep their money since they have a better ear to the ground on what is needed.

My mom said they used to keep my old highshcool so cold to prevent mold from growing because every year befor school started they hired a cleaning company to come in and bleach everything to kill all the mold.

100% upvote and resteemed for one of the best causes I've seen on Steemit.

Thanks so much for your support. I'm sure there are countless horror stories like yours coming out of the US education system, especially in rural areas. We live in a nice area, but the school building my wife teaches in is over 50 years old.

I'm hoping that this series will help send funds to needed areas, so thank you again for your vote.

I ran across DonorsChoose.org a while back, possibly in (ach spit) Facebook. It seemed like a good idea then as a way to make up for the horrific shortfall in school funding. Now, with Ethan volunteering to collect micropayments it is not only a good idea, it's an easy one. I will be spreading the word by including this post in the next "The Magnificent Seven."

Trust me, I'm a doctor.

Catweasel-c.png

It's been a great website. The two projects she has gotten funded before were extremely helpful to the specific needs of her students. I'm really hoping to put a dent in the remaining cost via this post. The projects run through May, so if we don't get there, I'm hoping they will get funded fully.

Thank you for your support.

As a kid who learned her love of almost everything from books, your wife has my vote of approval for this one. Hope this post does exceedingly well. I'll resteem it as well for what it's worth :)

Thank you so much for your support and for the resteem! Every vote helps, and I know they'll love the books. I'm glad you have a good history learning from books, too.

The state of education is poor throughout our country. Where I live, the students don't have enough textbooks to bring home. They stay in the classroom, leaving parents clueless as to what is being taught or how to help their children. This has been going on for quite some time, and I'm seeing the effects of this at the college where I teach. I'm encouraged by your ambition to help your wife achieve her goal through blockchain, and I hope to hear a report of how effective this young technology is at this point.

I appreciate your insight. There are many issues, but I'm just glad I can help in this small way. I'm hoping to continue this trend of supporting various projects in education via Donors Choose, but if my wife's projects get funded, I'll definitely post a follow-up so everyone can see the result of their generosity.

Thank you again for stopping by.

I wish I have alot in my per upvote. but now my 100% upvote only worth 0.01 cents. Upvoted anyway. A little bit does count also. Awesome move here.

Every vote counts, @iamjadeline. I appreciate everyone who gives a 100% vote, no matter how small. I thank you so much for giving toward this initiative!

Wow those wiggle things are quite pricey, and I wouldn't mind having one of those myself :). One of those yoga balls come to mind, but those are also probably pricey and more dangerous.

The goals are admirable, and the books seem good, and I do like the idea of keeping the kids moving too. I would say that perhaps the wobbly chairs are not strictly necessary, but that's just me blabbing. Hope we can get your projects off the ground!

Thanks so much for your comment! My wife allowed her class last year to bring yoga balls to sit on, which did serve the same purpose, but they were often distractions and hard to control when they'd roll around the classroom.

Using alternative seating helps children with attention deficit disorders as well. It allows them to move around and get their wiggles out, which helps them focus! I suppose you're right that they aren't strictly necessary, but in my wife's experience, they definitely help. One of the other third grade teachers at her school has a set of these stools, and they help her classroom environment tremendously.

Thank you so much for your support and your comment. I'm excited to see how much we can make to go toward these projects.

Ah, that's good to know concerning the attention deficit disorder.

FYI I've sent a bid bot vote from @upme on this post, so hopefully that should help some too :)

Yes! That vote helped for sure. Thank you for your contribution!

My son is a "wiggler" I wish these chairs were available to him when he was smaller, Lol do they make these for adults. I really love this idea!!

It's been a great idea for the children! It's great to know that they are developing new things like this to help children learn without forcing them to sit still all the time.

Thank you for your support!

I love how things have changed from the way they were when I was a child, but we had the desks that had the chair attached, they didn't make many left handed desks it was very hard to find them in the classrooms, I am left-handed and always had to sit sideways to be comfortable while wriitng, I love the younger teachers and their awesome Ideas.

There are a lot of good ideas coming from younger teachers because their professors in college have studied research-based methods for educating. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more to convince school board leaders and principals that these methods are superior to the old ways of doing things. I'm hoping that more changes will occur, but for now, I'm proud of the difference my wife has made in the lives of her students.

I can't empathize with the left-handed dilemma, but I know many people who are left-handed, and they would probably say the same things. I know in college they've moved away from those types of desks now in favor of tables, but I did have many courses in lecture halls where they would put a left-handed desk down the left side of the auditorium by the aisle.

Thanks for your response!

the wiggle chairs will give another funnier and more joyful atmosphere in the classroom and the stories well they can literally motivate kids to accomplish everything or find sooner what they really love and wanna do in life. Also they can learn valuable principles in a more funnier way that listening to their parents or teacher that in that age may be more ''strict''

Another one of the classrooms at her school has wiggle chairs. The kids love them, and they do help improve their attention to their work. After the success of this project, my wife might try to get more so that more of her students can use them simultaneously! Thank you so much for your support!

@ethandsmith This is a wonderful gift that you've initiated through Steemit for your wife and the children that are lucky enough to be taught by her. It shows true dedication that she care's enough to reach out for funds when in reality they should be provided if teachers are to be able to do their jobs and teach our childcare in a way that they deserve to be taught.

There are far too many stories of teachers who aren't paid enough anyway, spending their money to supplement their classrooms.

I know that she shouldn't have to do it, but has she thought about joining Steemit to help raise ongoing funds?

Hey @redwellies, thank you for stopping by.

My wife unfortunately doesn't have the time to join Steemit. She goes above and beyond spending time on her lesson planning and making sure that she's prepared to teach her students. I've mentioned the idea of starting her own profile before, but I would inevitably end up ghost writing it for her, so I think this is a better use of time and resources, especially since I can use my connections in many groups across the platform to help fund the initiatives.

I agree that she is to be commended. She is a fantastic teacher, and I'm extremely proud of what she's accomplished in just her second year as a teacher. I'm hoping these posts can fund more projects for her classroom in the future, so thank you so much for your support!

My contribution:

Thank you so much, Alvin! I'll add it to the total!

This is a great idea Ethan! Like I wrote on @alvinauh's post referring to this one, I come from a family of teachers and taught for a few years myself. I can definitely understand the struggles of funding school activities and the sacrifices that many teachers have to make to ensure the best for their students. There have really been too many times where my mom has bought things with her own money for her students, knowing full well she'll never see a dime of reimbursement. However, she does it anyway because she loves the kids and wants the best for them.

I will gladly support this project and others like it (if you so choose to continue doing this).

Hey TJ! Thanks so much for your support. It means so much considering you understand the situation. Your support will go a long way, and I'm excited to continue to update you on this project as well as on future projects. I do plan on continuing these initiatives in order to fund either future projects for my wife's classroom or other classrooms in my area.

Sounds great! I'm unfortunately not in a position to provide too much direct monetary support at the moment, but I'll always upvote and resteem these at the bare minimum and donate when I can. It makes me glad to see the support this project is receiving and encourages me to see how many people truly care about education.

I appreciate every small gift given to the project. Your support is equally as important as the people with higher vote values. Thanks for taking the time to comment and follow up. It's been exciting to see the response to this project.

Using blockchain to fund education is a wonderful idea. This post really brought me out of my selfish bubble. I know there are needs close to me and Steemit can be a source to reach those needs. What grade do you teach. I teach elementary fifth and sixth grade. The two things you pointed out are important tools for a classroom. Kids seem to loose attention span because they sit down too much. Those stools are a great idea. The book reading I found effective up to fifth grade. Our class size is from 25-30 students so It can be hard. I usually use a powerpoint of the book behind me when I read.

Hey there @mineopoly. My wife is the teacher, and she's in third grade. She has 23 students right now, and one of the other third grade classrooms has a few of the stools and has used them with much success.

The school district has really focused on engagement lately, so they're looking for ways to keep the kids engaged. My wife also loves books, so I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the two projects. Thank you for your support. It's good to know there are other teachers here on Steemit. Good luck with your classes!

Thank you @ethandsmith for your support and encouragement. For some reason I thought you were both teachers.

Peace

its bad that in country like our the education system is not well organizes, with the help of blockchain more can be done and loving the initiative that you guys have started , this could help many schools along the way

Thanks so much for taking the time to read and support this post. I really hope this initiative will take off, because I would love to make donations to many projects thanks to the generosity of Steemians!

Hi @ethandsmith. Your wife is really creative in getting fundings from crowdsourcing platform. Hopefully her project will be a success

Even in my country also we are facing the same issue with the same reason, which is politic as well

Thank you! I'm hoping for a successful project, as well. It seems like there are many areas where political disagreements can be detrimental to education. I'm hoping that Steemit can help solve those issues!

Thank you for your comment and support!

This is a great idea and I hope it is successful. I know that any teacher would appreciate that! I have never heard of any of the books she has listed! Some of them sound pretty interesting. I like the idea of the wiggle chair. We recently moved from the kitchen table to the couches to do school at our house and it's much more pleasurable. Having a different seating environment does seem to help! :) I hope that Mrs. Smith gets her projects donated soon. The idea of passing this on to other teachers also is a great idea! Pretty shocking for them to have a project funded by some random strangers I would bet!

One of the first projects she submitted on Donors Choose got funded on the last day by the Atlantic Coast Conference, haha. I suppose it pays to live in a college town. It's always neat to see when they get funded. Her class always writes very adorable thank you notes to the donors, too. I enjoy reading those before my wife sends them off.

We love to go look at new books, but they're just so expensive to purchase from the store. I'm hoping both of these projects get a lot of love here on Steemit so I can report back about receiving all of the items.

Thank you for your comment and your support!

Yes, new books are crazy expensive. Hopefully the funding does come through!! That's great that her kids write thank you notes. I bet those are awesome. A future Steemit post... ;)

@ethandsmith, you receive a 100% upvote from me. Thanks for sharing about your wife's needs in her classroom.

My mom taught for almost 40 years, and I was able to work at a local school for about 7 weeks.

I have seen the need and I support you in helping your wife meet the needs of her classroom kiddos.

Hey Nate, thank you so much for your contribution. I'm really excited to see how much we'll be able to fund with the rewards from this post, and it's good to know that you've helped out in the schools to know about the needs. Kudos to your mother for working so hard for so long. My grandmother taught for 34 years, so I come from a line of teachers. It's great that I can support them on this platform.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Absolutely. Steemit can help the education fees. Like tuitions.books or ecerything else , i was use steemit to help my youmgest brother of his studies.

That's great to hear, and very encouraging! I hope you'll continue to be able to help him with his studies!

Funding projects are one thing but how it is spent and maintained I think carries much more weight. Many projects get funded and then in the future have big problems along the way and need much more. This is because of neglect and not efficient spending. This is why private schools who take pride in there community do well. It is more of a business and treated as such, everything gets maximized.

I think that's why specific projects that are proposed by teachers themselves are a much better way to spend time and money than larger projects at the county or state level. I'm really hoping both of these projects get funded so I can share the outcomes when my wife introduces the resources to her children.

Thanks for stopping by!

Great initiatives for this. I will resteem it and hopefully will be able to get more people to support on this to make it a successful one. :)

Thank you for the resteem! The more votes we get, the closer we are to completing the projects! I appreciate your support!

Hi Ethan, I come to this late and I know that you've achieved your objective now. It's a fabulous idea and a great way of prototyping how we can fund things we would like to see done.

I appreciate you stopping by after the fact to lend your support! I really appreciate it.

This type of project serves as an incentive for many people, very good work ... Successes and forward in everything you propose, greetings!

Thank you very much for your comment! It's been great to use the blockchain to help get funds where they are needed most!

This post has been deemed resteem & upvote worthy by your friendly @eastcoaststeem ran by Steemian @chelsea88

Once again, your support is greatly appreciated, Chelsea. Thank you.

This is a project I'm more than happy to throw a 100% upvote at!

Thanks so much. Your vote is appreciated!

Because this is so awesome, I'm giving the tipping service a go (never tried it before). Fingers crossed this works - Tip!

It worked! Thank you very much for your contribution!

Yay! And you're very welcome!

This post has received a 8.12 % upvote from @aksdwi thanks to: @ethandsmith.

This post has received a 6.67 % upvote from @getboost thanks to: @ethandsmith.

This wonderful post has received a @ethandsmith 11.04% upvote from @mrswhale. Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/XG4y3mg You can vote in the name of the odl. https://steemit.com/~witnesses

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I am amazed and loved your post and even if my vote amounts next to nothing I gave my 100% vote and will follow you so that each time you create a post for your advocacy I will be there to give my vote.
It is indeed impressive to find people starting to use Steemit as a way to fund advocacies that they care about.
With the gifteconomy of Steemit I saw right away the possibility of using it to crowdfund projects for Banawen and seeing your post simply makes me want to do more.
It was really good that I stumbled into Steemengine and got to know you there.
I am very thankful.

Hey Maverick. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. It doesn't matter that your vote isn't worth much. I still appreciate your contribution. Every vote helps.

We're so glad to have you in the group. One of the best things about it is the support you get from so many others. I hope I'll be able to support any projects you host in the future. Thanks again for your support.