By Frances Vanderploeg

Thu, Oct 9, 2008 (midnight)

If you had $5,000 to give away, who would you give it to?

That's the question local students will need to answer through a yearlong program focusing on getting students excited about philanthropy.

Four high schools — Basic, Green Valley, Palo Verde and Valley — will learn this year what it takes to find worthwhile nonprofit groups that support local community causes and decide which deserve some free funding.

Called We R Community, the event, organized by the Public Education Foundation, launched Sept. 29.

Each school has been given $5,000 to work with for the inaugural year. They will research various nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations specific to the community around their school, send out applications, review and choose their recipients and plan a ceremony at the end of the school year to award the checks.

"They determine how they want to allocate the funds," Larry Seedig, president and chief executive officer of the USAA Savings Bank, said.

USAA Savings Bank is one of the first corporate sponsors to embrace the idea.

"Hopefully, the community they represent will have an impact on their decisions," he said. "Each school has the opportunity to make a large impact."

Students can choose a variety of recipients, including up to $1,000 toward programs at their own school or the entire sum to a larger-reaching organization.

Most of the student participants are from either accounting or business classes.

"As business students, they're going to have to know what's going on in their community," Caroline Carpenter, business teacher at Green Valley, said. "A few years ago we had kids that did something similar. It was a great experience for them."

We R Community is based off a program in Portland called Community 101. However, Susan Stern of the Stern Family Foundation, one of the sponsors, said We R Community is off to a better start because it has support from the School District.

The students already have ideas about what kind of organizations they want to look into. Some ideas they tossed around were helping cancer patients, children, pregnant teens or animals.

"Teen pregnancy is something we've seen at school," Julie Riette, 17, of Basic, said.

Classmate Cynthia Camarena, 14, said she was excited about the opportunity to help, something she's never been able to do.

"I really want to be involved in the community," she said. "I want to get that feeling that everyone talks about."

The program sponsors — Seedig, Stern and Leslie DeVore of the DeVore Family Foundation — chose schools for the first year. Later, more schools will have a chance to get involved.

First, the sponsors and foundation want to have an opportunity to document the process with a smaller group to find out what worked and what didn't, Vicki Herman, director of educational resources for the Public Education Foundation, said.

"I'm excited about something good coming out of the School District," DeVore, the program manager, said. "I hope they learn to invest in the community for the long term."

The students have already begun their work. They are required to report back monthly on their progress. The first task is to come up with a mission statement and begin their research. Stern provided students with resources to start with, including the HELP community guide and In Business Giving Guide.

For more information on how to get involved, contact your community school or the Public Education Foundation at 799-1042. Applications will be sent to nonprofit organizations in November.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or frances.vanderploeg@hbcpub.com.