So much of our childhood is hard to forget, yet hard to see with real clarity.
You remember how you felt going to that 7th grade dance. How nervous you were. And excited. You remember joining the German club or the book club or making the JV Field Hockey team as a freshman, but other than your mind’s eye — which frankly gets weirder as one gets older (we all have tangible proof … mine certainly does) — there aren’t the images. The photographic evidence that we were there. We did it. We loved it. Or hated it. But certainly it made us who we are as adults.
Peter Nordberg has found a way to help. He has found a way to track down these photos of our formative years, predominately K-12. He has also found a way that raises money for our schools. How?
Classphotofund.com. Look it up. It’s so clever and unprecedented and potentially fabulous, both personally and altruistically, that you’ll be proud of him. He and his wife have others start ups (nestnewyork.com) and years of experience in venture capital, both here and abroad.
What they saw in their own children’s New York City Public Schools was the need for a new way to fundraise and celebrate our K-12 schools. 140,000 plus schools. That’s roughly 175 million high school graduates, who would love to have those pictures. Can you find your yearbooks? Doubt you could find more than a couple.
Here’s what though, if people look they will. Someone will. Then they upload it to the classphotofund.com site (through Facebook now, coming everywhere soon with a mobile app available this summer.) Scan it. Take a picture with your phone, upload it. Tag people you remember. Via Pay Pal, you will be paid $1. Your alma mater will be paid $1. Classphoto gets 50 cents to keep developing …
All Kindergarten through twelfth grade schools are eligible. 140,000 schools are already in the database.
If you search for and find a photo that your friend or arch nemesis from 8th grade has uploaded, you can buy it for $2.50. It will load into a Facebook file only with your full permission. No one can see that snaggle-toothed school picture without your permission.
Group photos, like teams and clubs are the main target because everyone is in them. “Hey Bob – look you still had hair!”.
The ultimate goal is to bring alumni back into the fold. Not to be hassled for donations, but to reconnect. Generations younger than us (… if I can figure it out you can) are more technologically savvy than older alumni and could raise more money spending an afternoon at school uploading yearbooks to the site than making cookies. Really – do we need more cookies? One photo of 20 kids is potentially $20 for the school. Booster clubs are promoting the sport legacies / heritage and raising money for their schools.
Reunion committees can connect and have fun alternately laughing their butts off and getting misty-eyed as they upload their history together.
I am going rummaging right now. Watch out Brearley, ASL and Farmington …
Classphotofund can raise $100 million for these school by the end of 2013/2014. How about $ one billion by the end of 2014/2015? As more school budgets get cut and more art and music programs are eliminated, this money is literally invaluable. Take one photo that you’ve had in your drawer for 20 years, upload it and give your friends a chuckle … and funding to the current students. How easy! How clever!
Go to classphotofund.com for more specifics and bucks.blogs.nytimes.com 2013/02/14 for additional insights.
Authors note: 104,000 schools in data base.
Jpm