On the one hand, money-begs can be considered spamming around dKos. On the other hand, we post money-begs all the time for political candidates, so the distinction seems to be what the purpose of the ask is.
In this case, I'm asking folks to support 1) public education and 2) proper debating skills in 3) Florida (where public education has been decimated even more than in most states).
To this end, as a personal favor, I'd like to ask anyone who can spare a few bucks to help my brother, a debate teacher/coach in Florida, to raise enough money for his award-winning debate team to travel to the National Championships.
Below the Doily from Hell® are some details on the situation and the fundraiser from my brother's GoFundMe page:
Wellington High School Debate is a non-profit high school program that addresses this issue. Through hands-on activities, mentoring, presentations, and weekend competitive debate tournaments, students discover the world of competitive performance and political dialogue. Participants are challenged to research current events, outline positions both in support of and against the topic, and openly argue and defend their position. Wellington Debate also allows students to memorize edited scripts from plays, musicals and movies, and present them in a competitive acting forum.
Lawyers, teachers, public relations officers, radio and television personalities, executives, and prominent public figures testify to the benefits of debate participation. In fact, 80% of Congress debated competitively, and every U.S. President going back to Harry S Truman debated. Many of them found lifelong friends through their involvement, and gained valuable skills for use in their careers. Further, studies show colleges and universities rank debate among the most valued experiences a student can have when applying to college; a recent study showed the single most important factor in college admission to Ivy League and national universities was participation in speech, debate, and/or drama.
Ten of our outstanding competitors – seniors Rachel Ganon, Michael Reynolds, and Nick Thibault; juniors Vinnie Gasso, Stephie Maravankin, Alexa Fortuna, Yourui Ruan, and Dylan Race; sophomore Michael Leatherman; and freshman Savannah Race – have qualified to represent Wellington at three national debate championship tournaments: Ganon, Gasso and Maravankin competed at the prestigious Tournament of Champions in Lexington, April 26-29; Ganon, Reynolds, Thibault, Gasso, Fortuna, Ruan, Leatherman, and both Races will be at the National Catholic Forensic League “Grand National” in Philadelphia over Memorial Day Weekend; and Reynolds, Thibault, Maravankin, Ruan and Leatherman to the National Forensic League National Championship in Birmingham for a week in mid-June. These students’ accolades have been amazing, and a ton of details can be found on the team website.
When factoring in airfare, lodging and registration expenses, competing at these tournaments will cost more than $11,000. We are hopeful you will help reduce tournament expenses for these outstandingly talented and driven young adults through your tax-deductible donation to Wellington Debate.
They're trying to raise $10,000, and have hit about $3,200 to date.
Any assistance you could give would be greatly appreciated.
And no, I have no idea what the political views of his students are, which is as it should be at this point :)