Ring The Bell Fund is a non-profit organization that has been founded to help provide much-needed funds for schools to have monitored fire alarms connected to their associated fire departments or fire districts, and to have sprinklers in the schools to maximize safety and minimize property damage.
This issue of fires in schools is much more significant than many people realize. To illustrate, according to estimates from the U.S. Fire Administration National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and the National Fire Protection Association's annual fire department experience survey (for the period of 2005-2009 alone), U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of over 6,200 educational property structure fires, each and every year. These fires caused annual averages of 85 civilian fire injuries and over $100 million in direct property damage. Ring The Bell Fund has been created to help address this issue in our communities. You can read more about our story here, learn more about this issue here, and find out more about our team here.
Ring The Bell Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are fully tax deductible. Please feel free to visit our online donations page if you would like to learn about ways to contribute. No gift is too small, and every gift is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, or would like to contact us regarding contributions, please feel free to email us at donations@RingTheBellFund.org.
Ring The Bell Fund Launch
Ring The Bell Fund was officially launched on Thursday, May 2, 2013, at the Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The launch featured a panel discussion on how to improve school safety and ways that Ring The Bell Fund could fill a funding gap.
Panelists included Ted Lempert, President of the San Mateo County Board of Education; Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman; East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis; Ravenswood City School District Superintendent Maria De La Vega; and Virginia Chang Kiraly, former foreperson of the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury that investigated the lack of school fire alarm connections in San Mateo County public schools in 2009, and founder of Ring The Bell Fund.
Connecting school alarms to fire stations was the key message of Ring The Bell Fund as it was launched at Facebook. To help reinforce that message, Facebook made the first challenge grant donation of $20,000.00 to Ring The Bell Fund! The Ravenswood City School District will be the Fund’s first beneficiary.
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