40k In East Oakland

[ElectricPaladin]

So, as you may have read elsewhere, I'm a middle school science teacher in East Oakland, a reasonably impoverished community in California. I've decided to try to start a Warhammer club at my school because I see a lot of value for my kids. Warhammer can teach social skills, strategic thinking, math and probability, and reading. A nerdy hobby club can give nerdy kids a place to meet and make friends. And of course, as we all know, Warhammer is a ton of fun :D.

The problem is that I live on a teacher's salary. While I'd love to buy a battleforce for every kid that's interested, I just can't afford to. Also, my wife took one look at me when I came home from my first afternoon teaching the kids to play and made me promise not to :rolleyes:.

I know that times are tough all around, but I'm wondering if anyone out there in the world of BoLS would like to help out. I have kids interested in Necrons and Tyranids (ah, middle schoolers...). I can take any model you don't want, no matter how old and beat up it is, and turn it into something my kids can use. I could also use straight-up donations, and I'm not too proud to take them.

How can you trust me? I wish there was something like Kickstarter or Indiegogo for donations and other non-commercial projects, but if there is I haven't found it yet. Feel free to tip me off if you know of something - and no, Donor's Choose doesn't work, since they have a very strict academic products only, and force you to buy from their selection of vendors. You don't really have any way of knowing that I'm not a total jerk using a sob story to get your unwanted 'nids and 'crons. At the moment, I don't have a way of proving myself - I just have to ask you to trust me. I do promise that I'll post pictures of my kids playing with your donations, may the Hammer of Ban fall upon me if I lie.

The details:

If you want to send me some dust-gathering 'nids, 'crons, or anything else you think a burgeoning middle school kid might like, my address is:

Mark Stone
528 Merritt Avenue, Apartment 107
Oakland, CA 94610

If you feel like throwing a couple of bucks at me, you can use Paypal. My email address there is electricpaladin (AT) gmail (DOT) com.

A couple of bucks would really help. Consider that if everyone who posts here gave me one dollar, I probably would have enough to buy those kids the aforementioned battleforces, and also some terrain to play on.

[White Tiger88]

Hmmm thats a good idea....we should do something like that here shame we don't have any cool teachers anymore.......Then again if it wouldn't cost me more then most models are worth to send you something i have enough bits to build an orky love army out of i will never use <_<

[magickbk]

I've always been a bit jealous of the fact that there is a school league in the UK, and nothing like that here in the US.

As a suggestion for making things more manageable, try small games and consider even modifying the minimum unit sizes and maximum points allowed for HQs and the like. This kind of evens the playing field down to a unit based game.

Also, here is the UK School League Resource Page, maybe it has some good stuff you can adapt to fit your purposes: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=700001&section=community&aId=4300008

[Deadlift]

I know it's not Crons or Nids, but I have some beat up old Dark Angels that I would happily parcel up and send your way. Want them ?

Kudos to you matey :)

[ElectricPaladin]

I know it's not Crons or Nids, but I have some beat up old Dark Angels that I would happily parcel up and send your way. Want them ?

Kudos to you matey :)

If I can't use 'em right now, I'm sure I can eventually. Some kid will eventually want to start marines, and I've got new kids expressing interest every week. Send' 'em my way!

Thanks.

[zenjah]

You might try www.gofundme.com/ to raise funds. They seem to allow more leeway on what type of things can be funded than some of the other sites.

[Cpt Codpiece]

I've always been a bit jealous of the fact that there is a school league in the UK, and nothing like that here in the US.



school leauges are all fine and well, if you can get the kids away from the mass media brainwashing. xfactor this, n dubz that, more crap that no body cares about except the poor (not financial) kids they target, the other.

i would have loved it if my school had them when i was at school (91-96).

i know its hard, but maybe a subscribtion would be helpful if your budding club has a few members, just a few kids chipping in can get an army painter set in no time, then they can get the minis together in time and until then use what ever is at hand (maybe get a black reach or DV set cheap, so they have at least something to use before hobby gear)

[ElectricPaladin]

So, I'm exploring some donation aggregation options, considering putting together a website or a blog or something, and various other methods. However, I thought I'd establish my chops - at least a little - with some photos of my kid [REDACTED] (we'll just call him IF) kicking my butt with the other half of my army. As you can see, IF had a good time.

(For the civic-minded, don't worry - I got IF's mom's permission to post pictures of us playing):

http://i313.photobucket.com/albums/ll391/electricpaladin/IMG_0017.jpg

http://i313.photobucket.com/albums/ll391/electricpaladin/Miniatures/IMG_0019.jpg

[Sean_OBrien]

Contact GW HQ (either Memphis or possibly the head office).

Several years ago I arranged to have them donate several boxes to a USO shipment for the guys serving in Afghanistan. Won't offer up the specifics - but we managed to swing enough from them to outfit several armies worth.

Also, in order to spread the joy - you might consider hitting up companies like PP or Reaper to look at augmenting things. There are normally certain strings attached, but they are generally reasonable.