Will you help students at Standing Bear High School?

Our first-year Grizzlies depend on us – on all of us – to have a great first year and a great high school career. They are learning and competing in brand-new, first-rate accommodations with teachers and staff who are eager to help students reach their full potential.

Your gifts will help create a support system to catch Standing Bear students if they fall and give them a hand up when the need occurs – creating a fair and equitable system to help students have everything they need to succeed. Requesting $1,000 plus cost reimbursement.

Thank you for considering a gift to this Fund a Need campaign.

Hello! My name is Marisa Zornes, and I’m a teacher at Lincoln High School. During my time as an AP Literature and Composition teacher, my classes have studied the works of Jane Austen, Zora Neale Hurston, and many other distinguished authors. It wasn't until this past summer that I realized that I was overlooking one of the most acclaimed authors of the last century and an essential representative of the state of Nebraska - Willa Cather.

During the summer of Willa Cather's 150th birthday year, I had the incredible opportunity of attending the National Willa Cather Center's annual Teacher Institute. It was an incredible five-day visit filled with archival studies, literature discussions, and immersive tours of places that influenced Cather and her novels. My five days in Red Cloud, NE challenged and changed my outlook on Nebraska's place in literature. Ever since the teacher institute, I have been on a mission to share Cather's legacy and writing with my students.

During the fourth quarter of the 2023-2024 academic year, my AP Literature and Composition students will read and study "My Ántonia" by Willa Cather. At the conclusion of the novel, my students and I will visit and explore the National Willa Cather Center. Our field trip will consist of archival studies guided by Cather scholars, immersive tours of Red Cloud and its countryside, and a chance to experience Cather's life in the very place she spent her childhood.

All funds donated will go directly toward admission fees needed to utilize the center's services and experiences for our students and chaperones. Any additional funds will go toward other trip expenses. I am confident that this field trip will not only boost our students' pride in the state of Nebraska, but also in our state's pivotal role in literature. Requesting $243 plus cost reimbursement.

Thank you for your consideration in donating to our field trip.

There is no better way to start the day than PLAY! Please help McPhee first graders get a "soft start" to their day through STEM bins. 

We are looking for donations to help us incorporate more STEM activities into our morning routines.  Requesting $1,400 plus cost reimbursement.

Money toward our fund a need will be used to purchase:

SquigzBuilding BlocksMagnet TraysLegosBrain FlakesGeo Shape Buildersand MORE!