Since 2007 PriceSmart has sponsored an annual fundraising campaign to benefit the Aprender y Crecer program. The campaign that took place in the fall of 2022 broke the $2 million mark for the first time, collecting more than $2,085,000 in donations from PriceSmart members at the cash registers as well as through PriceSmart’s online platform. Price Philanthropies Foundation committed to match these donations dollar for dollar up to a maximum amount for each country—yielding an additional $823,000—bringing the grand total raised to more than $2.9 million.
“I am proud of our team of employees—both in our clubs and in departments across the board—for all that they have done to support the Juntos Por La Educación campaign, and hitting a record year of donations from our members,” remarked David Price, Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff of PriceSmart. “These donations will allow Aprender y Crecer to add more students and schools, expanding our impact. I am grateful for our company’s and our members’ commitment to supporting the local community and our Aprender y Crecer program.”
This year, Aprender y Crecer will provide school supplies and educational materials to more than 135,000 students and 6,700 teachers in 253 public schools in Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. As a point of reference, the San Diego Unified School District, the second largest public school district in California, serves around 114,000 students1.
Since its inception in 2006, Aprender y Crecer has donated more than 1 million school supply packages and 1.8 million books to students, along with 282,000 books to school libraries. This year all students in participating schools will receive three books to facilitate reading instruction in the classroom, as well as recreational reading at home.
Donations and matching funds raised in a certain country are invested in the schools participating in Aprender y Crecer in that country, for things like reading books given to each child, literature collections for school libraries, school furniture, equipment, and professional development for teachers. Aprender y Crecer also provides workshops for parents, designed to promote reading in the home.
Since 2007, the fundraising campaign for Aprender y Crecer has collected more than $16 million in donations from PriceSmart members plus more than $6.5 million in matching funds from Price Philanthropies, on top of the foundation’s annual operating budget for the program. Each year the amount of member donations has grown substantially.
“Collaborating with Price Philanthropies on the annual Aprender y Crecer ‘Juntos Por La Educación’ fundraising campaign is extremely important and rewarding for the PriceSmart team. The funds received have a major impact on supporting education in many of the local communities in which we operate,” commented Chris Souhrada, Executive Vice President of Club Operations for PriceSmart. “We are especially grateful for our PriceSmart members that have donated, as with their support we are able to help many more people through the Aprender y Crecer program.”
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1 2021-2022 enrollment; http://www.ed-data.org/district/San-Diego/San-Diego-Unified
