That describes how I feel. Wow! I'm blown away by the generosity of the readers here and the science blogging community at large. As of Sunday night, just one week after the official launch of the Science Bloggers for Students DonorsChoose Challenge, you guys have donated over $400 through my giving page. Together, the LabSpaces bloggers have brought in 34 donors contributing almost $1700. And the challenge has raised over $14,000 for classrooms across the U.S.!

I promised a token of appreciation to a randomly selected donor. Javelin, creator of Prim and Plush, found my post offering a crocheted molecule to a donor, and she was wonderfully generous, donating some of her creations for me to use as incentives in the DonorsChoose campaign. They arrived over the weekend, and I must say, they are even more adorable in person than they are in the pics! The first bar I set was $350 donated, a goal that we passed on Friday. Many thanks to all those who contributed, which include: Jade Ed, Ivan Oransky, skullstuffing, Joshua Drew, MO BIO Labs, Kate Clancy, Prabodh Kandala, and Kelly Dobos. Thank you all for your generosity!

To choose who would receive the first molecule, each donor was assigned a number. Then a party blinded to the numbers (in this case, Paramed, my husband) was asked to choose a number, 1 to 8. His first response was, "√2". Did I mention he likes math... and is a bit of a smart ass? After the first response, parameters were adjusted, with the instructions now, "Choose an integer that is equal to or greater than 1 and less than or equal to 8." He thought for a moment, mostly I believe to determine if he could come up with another invalid answer that fit within the parameters. Finally, he chose 5, which was assigned to Kelly Dobos. So Kelly will soon be receiving a cute little Mr. Methane molecule like the one pictured here. There will be two more chances at crocheted molecules, so keep giving!

One of the projects that I chose to support and promote here is Oh! Rats!, a project designed to give a 6th grade class in Arkansas the chance to dissect rats and learn about biology. You can learn more about this project from the teacher, Mrs. T, in a post here. Over $200 was contributed to this project through LabSpaces giving pages last week. That leaves just over $400 to go, but that goal must be reached by October 27, just 9 days away. Otherwise, no rats for Mrs T's class  I hope that frown will be turned upside down by October 27, but we can't do it without your help! If you can, give--even a few dollars will help. And pass the link on to friends, family, and colleagues! We can do this!!