General Mills Inc. and Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken are asking elementary students to help out their schools by eating their Wheaties and sending in the box tops for cash.
The Minneapolis-based company has launched a national program called “Box Tops for Education” in which it pledges to give schools 15 cents for every box top collected from any of the 37 General Mills cereal brands.
Each school that participates can collect up to $10,000 cash for computers, library books, or anything else it needs.
The company enlisted Ms. Van Dyken, who won four gold medals in swimming at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, to be the program’s national spokeswoman. Last month, the 23-year old went back to her alma mater, Willow Creek Elementary School in Englewood, Colo., to launch it.
“Right now a lot of schools are hurting for money. So I’m sure this program will make a big difference,” said Ms. Van Dyken, one of several athletes pictured on current Wheaties boxes.
All K-6 public, private, parochial, and military schools in the United States are eligible for the program, which runs until March 31. More information is available by calling (800) 228-4816 or by checking the World Wide Web at http://www.boxtops4education.com.
The president of Education Alternatives Inc. has been named an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Philip E. Geiger is teaching a course this fall in school business administration at the college in New York City.
Minneapolis-based EAI seeks partnerships with public schools to manage their operations, and managed schools in the Baltimore and Hartford, Conn., districts until conflicts with local officials ended the agreements.
The National Council for the Social Studies has announced the four winners of its 1996 Teacher of the Year award. They are: Shirley A. Stein, a 5th grade teacher at Sullivan School in Ulysses, Kan.; Susan Hightshoe, who teaches 5th and 6th grades at Linn-Mar Intermediate School in Marion, Iowa; David M. Seiter, of Northridge High School in Layton, Utah; and Linda Karen Miller, who teaches at Fairfax (Va.) High School.
--ADRIENNE D. COLES acoles@epe.org
