onceuponaschool.org

Just about anyone, I think, would be willing to lend a hand to benefit his or her local school. It just takes a little inspiration and some clear direction, which you’ll find in abundance at the Web site Once Upon a School. The brainchild of 2008 TED Prize winner, author Dave Eggers (below), the hopeful project seeks to assemble 1,000 stories of private citizens engaged in helping their local public schools.

The 73 stories collected so far range from a husband and wife Web design team in California, who helped create a state-of-the-art site for an elementary school, to a group of librarians, who organized a book drive for a New Orleans elementary school in the hard-hit and still suffering 7th Ward. Then there’s the empty nester in Battle Creek, MI. She’s working to bridge the gap between the homeschool community and the local district.

Anyone can replicate an existing project in their neighborhood or pursue an original idea to contribute to the site. A Step-by-Step Guide keeps it real, with practical, numbered instructions for approaching a school, connecting with an appropriate teacher, and drafting an actionable plan.