The Florida Holocaust Museum began a social media campaign called Trunks of Hope to raise money and awareness for their teaching trunks program.



"They're absolutely free to any teacher in the contiguous United States that wants one," said the museum's executive director Elizabeth Gelman. "They are available for 6-to-8 weeks at a time and we take care of all the shipping costs."

Last year, the Florida Holocaust Museum shipped teaching trunks to 17 states, reaching about 50,000 students, at an average shipping cost of $300 round-trip per trunk. Gelman said the museum needs help to cover the rising shipping costs and the increased popularity of the program.

"We're getting requests from teachers who have never known about the trunks before," she said. "We are really looking to our community because we know it's a great resource, we know it's really appreciated by the teachers, by the students, by the community."

The Florida Holocaust Museum created a Trunks of Hope page on the crowd funding website Indiegogo, with a goal to raise $7,500. So far, they've reached about half that amount and have a few weeks left to raise the rest.

Sandy Mermelstein said her parents founded the Florida Holocaust Museum and she believes the teaching trunks are a great learning lesson for students.

"It's very important for children to learn about history," she said. "Because you need to understand what happened in the past, in order to help prevent it in the future."

The teaching trunks contain grade appropriate curriculum, books and videos.

"The kindergarten through 2nd grade trunk really deals with being a good person and understanding the differences of people around us," Gelman said. Then you go up to high school, where you're talking about genocide and human rights education."

Gelman said the Florida Holocaust Museum wants students to use the lessons of the past to create a better future for all.

