Casey’s General Store recently started their rewards program at the beginning of January. You earn rewards every time you purchase something at Caseys, and you can save these points to either buy items, save money on gas, or even donate to your local schools. This helps schools afford the things they need the most. Over 35,000 schools have been supported by Casey’s “Cash for Classrooms” program. These donations are distributed to schools twice a year in April and December with a check made out directly to the school.
To see how it is affecting our school, I decided to ask some Casey’s employees if they have had donations to New Haven School District since the rewards program’s launch.
Casey’s employee Willy Scheibel says, “I sometimes donate to the school when I buy my lunch while at work.”
Casey’s employee Jose Vallejo says, “I’ve heard customers at the registers who were donating.”
Dr. Joshua Hoener was asked what the money is being used for and replied with, “The money can be used when there aren't sufficient funds in the budget for a needed item. We also use this money for items we don't want to use tax dollars to purchase. Examples of such purchases are the TV in the cafeteria and the camera used to live stream games to that TV.”
Dr. Hoener also said, “AmazonSmile benefits the New Haven School District Foundation, a non-profit organization in our community that donates money toward large projects such as the Track Project a few years ago.”
There are also other ways to help NHSD raise money. For example, Amazon has their “Amazon Smile” program, and then there’s the “Box Tops for Education” program, and Peoples Savings Bank has their rewards cards which help schools too. The NHSD also does things to help our school by recycling over at the elementary, along with various fundraisers as well.
Casey’s has donated over $50,000 to schools around the nation. The rewards program has only been active for a little over 2 months, and already it has made such a huge impact on our schools. Just imagine how much of an impact we’ll see in a year, or even as far as five or ten years. The impact could change schools forever.