Originally published 2019-09-05.
Lady Gaga has recently announced that she'll be funding dozens of classroom projects in three US cities that have fallen victim to recent mass shootings.
The pop singer and Oscar award-winning actress made a Facebook post saying she and her Born This Way Foundation would partner with Donors Choose to fund the educational needs of students in Dayton, Ohio, Gilroy, California, and El Paso, Texas.
Gaga will be funding the projects and resources of 162 classrooms in these cities.
The musician also used Facebook as a means of encouraging the victims of the shootings and expressing her condolences for those affected.
“My heart goes out to those who were taken from us too soon and to their families, loved ones, and communities who are left to grieve,” Gaga wrote. “Everyone has the right to laws that make them feel safe in their communities. In this moment, I want to channel my confusion, frustration, and fury into hope. Hope that we are there for each other and for ourselves.”
If you'd like to join Lady Gaga and Donors Choose in financing the educational needs of these communities affected by the mass shootings, visit the nonprofit’s online fundraising campaign.
A concrete response through teachers' projects
The initiative described channels attention toward specific classroom needs. That gives the gesture a practical focus beyond a public expression of sympathy. The announcement and the number of classrooms belong to 2019; the article should not be read as a new or ongoing fundraising offer without current confirmation.
Help can address one need without claiming to resolve everything
Educational materials do not erase a community's grief or the wider causes of violence. They can still provide useful support in a part of daily life that continues after the headlines. A constructive reading asks what teachers requested and how the promised help was delivered. The value lies in responding to identified needs rather than assuming that the visibility of a donor alone establishes the result.
Where the 162 classrooms were
Gaga posted the announcement on Facebook on Friday 9 August 2019. Her Born This Way Foundation, working with DonorsChoose.org, a site where educators post classroom project requests that donors can choose to support, would fully fund 162 projects: 125 in El Paso, 23 in Gilroy and 14 in Dayton. The three shootings came in little more than a week. At the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California on 28 July, four people were killed, including the gunman, and 13 were injured; in El Paso, Texas, on 3 August, 22 people were killed and 24 injured; and in Dayton, Ohio, the next day, ten people were killed, including the gunman, and more than two dozen injured.
Sources: FOX 7 Austin (Bay City News), 10 August 2019: Lady Gaga funds classroom needs in communities affected by recent mass shootings The Fader, 11 August 2019: Lady Gaga to fund over 160 classrooms in Dayton, El Paso and Gilroy after mass shootings
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