By Heather Posey
Staff Writer
The Gaslamp Restaurant and Bar is going back to school on Thursdays and donating 20 percent of all dinner sales to one teacher selected each week for its Tip Your Teacher program.
A new promotional fundraiser which began this fall, Tip Your Teacher was started by the restaurant as a way to help out teachers in need, something Gaslamp owners and former teachers Alicia Shelton and partner Jennifer McDonald know all too well.
“Teachers have such small budgets now that they often use their own money to buy school supplies such as markers or scissors or even books,” said Shelton. “We work with a lot of non-profits in the area and we looked into different organizations, but decided the best way to do it was to let the customers decide where their money goes to.”
So with a nomination jar sitting at the hostess table, customers have the opportunity to write the name of a teacher of their choice to receive the money collected. At the end of each Thursday night dinner, restaurant staff draws a name randomly from the jar and the new teacher of the week is selected.
“We get a lot of nominations from parents or former students,” said Shelton. “We’ve even had some teachers nominate themselves.”
Any teacher is eligible regardless of which school district they work in, according to Sheldon. The selected teacher of the week is notified Friday when Sheldon calls the teacher’s school and he/she receives the money the following Friday in the form of a check.
“The check can be anywhere from $300 to $500 on average written out to them,” Shelton said. “We are doing it on good faith and as a community and neighborhood thing. We let them choose where they go.”
Money donated for Teacher of the Week is not tax deductible and is taken from Thursday night dinner sales between the hours of 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. The Gaslamp restaurant and bar is located at 6251 East Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach.
For information, call (562) 596-4718 or visit www.thegaslamprestaurant.com.
