help support our educational efforts

1. donations of collections, materials, equipment, and funds

Mineral & fossil collections and specimens: We gladly accept donations of minerals & fossil collections, and other materials for use in our educational programs, displays, and our future interactive museums. Regardless if it’s one specimen or an entire collection, we would be very grateful for your donation and will put them to good use.

Lapidary and other Tools & Equipment Donations: We gladly accept donations of lapidary (and other equipment) for use in our educational programs, displays, and our future interactive museums. Regardless of its condtion, if its one piece or an entire collection of tools and equipment and so forth, we would be very grateful for your donation and will put them to good use.

NOTE: Whatever donated materials and equipment we cannot use, we will either find an educationally based entity that can use it, such as school, nature center, and so forth. Or, we may sell or auction off portions of the materials and equipment donations with ALL of proceeds / funds generated from the sale of such being used for strictly for the support of GTC's educational efforts.

Financial donations: Every penny counts, and we welcome your support no matter how big or small.

Mining Equipment Donations: We are also seeking old mining equipment for use in educational programs on mining history along with end uses of what was mined in our daily lives. We also seek to create some displays honoring of those men and women whom made great sacrifices and served our nations needs by mining for the minerals and elements used in the products and services we utilize in our daily lives.

2. grants, Sponsorships, and Advertising Opportunities

Grants & Sponsorships: One of the many ways you can help support our efforts is in the form of grants & sponsorship of an entire program, just some the equipment or displays used in a program, or even vehicles, facilities, and so forth. NOTE: As we are not yet a non-profit entity, we recommend you consult your tax advisor as to its status of tax deductibility. If the status of tax deductibility is of importance, there is another option. Advertising

Advertising: In some cases, your grant or sponsorship may also deemed as "advertising opportunities". By defining your support and sponsorship as “advertising”, this could make your expense and support of our educational efforts expense tax deductible. Your company logo (and contact info if you wish) will be prominently displayed on our website, on select banners, displays, pieces of equipment, and vehicles.

Please contact us if you are interested in offering us a grant, sponsorship, and /or wish to explore this as an "advertising opportunity". We badly need your help and support, so lets work together on this and find a way to make this all possible!

3. Help support GTC's costs of daily operations, and help us find our new permanent home!

GTC Rock Shop, Warehouse, & Seasonal Locations:
We always welcome your financial support of the operating costs of our many locations. Our retail division is critical element to funding and making our educational program efforts possible. Every dollar we spend on operating costs is one less we have to work with towards those efforts. The need is always great, but due to COVID-19, the need has never been bigger! Please contact us if you can help!

Help us find our long-term home:
Long-term, our mission plan requires that we find, build out, and keep a new facility / home base for our operations. We have always envisioned our permanent home as being on a fairly large property that was zoned to enable us to build and operate not our geosciences entertainment & education center (with store), but also include our warehouse, offices, and ideally even a private campground (specifically for those coming out for fun & educational geosciences experiences). This would only be possible with a great deal of outside help and financial support. Please contact us if you can help!

First step towards finding our long-term home:
Just prior to this pandemic, we were very close to securing a deal with FSK Mall for a large space that would have housed our first geosciences entertainment & education center complete with a 60-seat classroom, gem & fossil mining flumes, lapidary& crafts lap, geode cracking stations, and retail store. This was not where we thought we would locate such a facility, and it was limiting in many ways. Yet, everyone was very excited about getting this built and open. Sadly, that is now only possible with considerable outside help and financial support. Please contact us if you can help!

4. volunteer your expertise and time

Accepting volunteer help to this point has been a finical challenge due to our ethical and contractual requirements to have everyone that works with the public go through child care back ground checks and complete significant training. This is both time consuming and costly. That is about to change! We cant possibly do it all alone, nor can we afford to pay everyone to help us achieve our mission plan to inspire "kids of all ages" in the sciences.

So here is the bad news: For legal and safety reasons, at this time we still can not accept volunteer help from anyone under the age of 18. We will be revisiting this again soon and hope to make some changes to this policy moving forward. The issue is largely about pysical safefy and youth protections issues.

• We are seeking volunteers to be guest speakers / presenters and share their knowledge and passion for the sciences with others.

• We are seeking volunteers that could assist us with legal matters including the formation of a 501c3 non profit

• We are also seeking volunteers to help with educational program & product development along with preparations work on both.
  

5. continue to follow us on social media, tell others about us, and purchase things from our retail & online stores

Follow us on social media: By following us on social media, you will get special offers and opportunities. But its more than that... Some of those that are considering offering us grants and sponsorships require that our following in social media increases sharply.

Spread the word, tell others about us and our mission plan: Goes without saying, getting the word our about who we are, what we do, and even how others can help support our efforts is hugely important to our continued success.

Support us through your purchases at our retail store and online store: Sales from our retail division help support our educational efforts. Plus, unlike most rock shops, we are first and foremost a educational company, not just a retail store. As such, even in a retail setting we are educators wanting and needing to teach and inspire "kids of all ages" in the sceinces, and it shows!