Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Health & Society

SU’s MLAB working to raise $700,000 for New Orleans by collecting ‘Fundred Dollar Bills’

Tuesday, May 11, 2010, By News Staff
Share
School of Education

The Syracuse University School of Education’s Mobile Literacy Arts Bus (MLAB) and the Central New York community are working on an art initiative that aims to raise $700,000 to remove lead from the soil in New Orleans.

mlabThrough a national community art initiative called “The Fundred Dollar Bill Project,” students in the Syracuse City School District and the North Syracuse Central School District created their own decorative, hand-drawn $100 bills and donated them to SU’s MLAB, the local Fundred collection site. The MLAB is an RV that SU students renovated as a mobile, digital classroom that works with K-12 students on literacy and arts projects.

Nationally, Fundred is aiming to collect 3 million $100 bills. This summer, leaders of the national Fundred project will take the decorated bills they have collected from across the country to Congress and ask for an even exchange of real U.S. dollars. This represents a goal of $300 million for Operation Paydirt, an initiative to remove lead contamination from the soil in New Orleans.

Locally, the Fundred collection effort is being led by Marion Wilson, SU’s director of community initiatives in the visual arts and coordinator of the MLAB. Jessica Posner ’08 is among those helping Wilson coordinate the local effort.

“The message is so strong, as it really speaks to the power and value of art and collective action—particularly of children,” Posner says. “Furthermore, lead contamination is a real problem in Syracuse, as well.”

Over the past year, students at a number of area schools have created Fundred bills, including Fowler High School, Delaware Academy, Frazer School, Blodgett School, Bellevue Academy, all in Syracuse; and Smith Road Elementary School in North Syracuse. Local adults have also contributed through community events on the Near Westside and through the 601 Tully Project.

“People seem really receptive to the project, and generally really connect to the national scale of the project, and the ability to make a difference through collective action and the arts,” Posner says. “It’s really quite a powerful project. With each line we draw together, we attempt to heal the world.”

On May 12, the official Fundred collection truck, an armored vehicle driving cross country to Fundred collection sites, will be in Central New York. The truck will visit Smith Road Elementary School in North Syracuse and Frazer School in Syracuse when it picks up the local contributions from the MLAB.

Fundreds may still be donated after May 12 by dropping them off at the MLAB or sending them to the SU School of Education, 250 Huntington Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244. SU project coordinators will send the Fundred bills to the national headquarters for inclusion in the collection.

For more on the national Fundred Dollar Bill Project and Operation Paydirt, visit http://www.fundred.org. For more on the MLAB at SU, visit http://mobileliteracyartsbus.blogspot.com.

  • Author

News Staff

  • Recent
  • Arts and Sciences Hosts Inaugural Scholarship and Research Gala
    Friday, May 9, 2025, By Sean Grogan
  • Chancellor Kent Syverud Honored as Distinguished Citizen of the Year at 57th Annual ScoutPower Event
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By News Staff
  • New Maymester Program Allows Student-Athletes to Develop ‘Democracy Playbook’
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • From Policy to Practice: How AI is Shaping the Future of Education
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Christopher Munoz
  • Kohn, Wiklund, Wilmoth Named Distinguished Professors
    Thursday, May 8, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In Health & Society

Major League Soccer’s Meteoric Rise: From Underdog to Global Contender

With the 30th anniversary of Major League Soccer (MLS) fast approaching, it’s obvious MLS has come a long way from its modest beginning in 1996. Once considered an underdog in the American sports landscape, the league has grown into a…

Rebekah Lewis Named Director of Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is pleased to announce that Rebekah Lewis is the new director of the Maxwell-based Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health. She joined the Maxwell School as a faculty fellow…

Maxwell Hall Foyer Home to Traveling Exhibition ‘Picturing the Pandemic’ Until May 15

Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic upended daily lives across the globe, changing how we learned, how we shopped and how we interacted with each other. Over the following two years, the virus caused the deaths of several million people,…

Maxwell Alumnus Joins California Wildfire Relief Efforts

In mid-January, days after the devastating Eaton Fire began in Los Angeles County, California, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs alumnus Zayn Aga ’21 joined colleagues from the office of U.S. Rep. Judy Chu at a nearby donation drive…

Haowei Wang Named 2025-26 Fellow by Association of Population Centers

Haowei Wang, assistant professor of sociology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has been named a 2025-26 Association of Population Centers (APC) Fellow. Every year, the APC selects 12 population research centers to nominate an early-career center…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.