Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

HANNIBAL, MO. -- If you know a teacher, you know they probably spend quite a bit of money from their own pockets on classroom supplies.

It doesn't have to be that way.

There's a website called www.DonorsChoose.org.

Teachers, school nurses, and guidance counselors can log on and fill out a request in order to seek donations for a project.

Corporations and individuals can then go on and donate money to each individual project.

That means if your child or grandchild's class is in need of a certain item, you can go to www.DonorsChoose.org and contribute.

"Everything from books to gym equipment, iPods, iPads, e-readers are some of the things that can be donated," Colin Ash with Horace Mann said.

"We've been able to get 12 e-readers for our classroom. Our dream is to have a whole classroom set. I've been able to get class sets of many literature books so every child can have a copy," 6th grade teacher Paula Epker said.

Paula Epker is a sixth grade reading and English teacher at Hannibal Middle School.

She has used the website for about $2500 worth of supplies for her room.

Horace Mann is one of many corporate sponsors of the website that will match dollar for dollar, up to a certain amount, of your donation.

“Imagine a Better Classroom” is the Horace Mann matching donation campaign. Horace Mann will match properly coded donations up to $100 to projects posted on DonorsChoose.org. 

For a project to receive a matching donation, the donor must enter a promotion code at checkout when making a donation.

Full-time public school teachers, nurses and guidance counselors wishing to have projects funded can pass the code along to colleagues, friends, family and other potential donors.  Here are some details:

-  HoraceMann12 is the code.  It is NOT case sensitive.  Donors use it at checkout like they would a coupon code.
-  Features a promotion code used by donors at checkout.
-  When the code is used, Horace Mann will match donations between $1 and $100.
-  Gift cards and corporate donations will not be matched.
-  The promotion began Oct. 1 at 12:01 a.m.
-  Teachers can share the code with colleagues and/or friends and family. 
-  Once Horace Mann donates to a project, the monies stay with that project even after our $250,000 funding is depleted. 
-  If a project isn’t fully funded, our donation returns to the donor to reallocate.