Target Donates More than $13K to Florissant Area Schools

Although several area school districts, such as Ferguson-Florissant and Hazelwood, are working to overcome financial hurdles, some area schools are getting a helping hand from a large retail company.

Several Florissant area schools have received funding thanks to Target’s “Take Charge of Education” initiative, a signature program designed to provide funds to area K-12 schools for their most important needs, such as books, classroom technology and so forth.

The program has donated more than $350 million to schools across the country since 1997, according to its website. The program is also a part of the company’s commitment to give $1 billion to education by the end of 2015, Sarah Van Nevel, a spokeswoman for the company, wrote in an email.

“As part of our commitment to building strong communities, Target is compelled to do its part to address the education challenges in America and put more kids on the path to graduation,” Nevel wrote in the email.

The way “Take Charge of Education” works is that customers who have a REDcard—a Target Visa Card, Target Debit Card or Target Credit Card—can donate 1 percent of their card purchases toward the initiative. To make it even better, customers can specify what schools get the funding.

The company sends the donations off for the year every fall. As of last year, Sacred Heart School had the most donations made of all Florissant schools with more than $1,400 donated.

Here’s a roundup of area school’s that received donations as of August 2012: