3,500 teachers will visit Nickelodeon Universe free at Mall of America

Mall of America’s newly launched Community Foundation will get started rewarding valuable community members with a Teacher Appreciation event on Sunday, May 7.

From 8 to 11 a.m., Nickelodeon Universe will be opened exclusively to more than 3,500 Minnesota teachers and their guests. The event kicks off Teacher Appreciation Week, during which Mall of America will continue expressing its thanks to local educators.

“As many teachers are feeling the fatigue from the school year and the long Minnesota winter, it is the perfect time to make them feel special and have some fun,” said Jill Renslow, MOA’s chief business development and marketing officer, Mall of America.

“We felt recognizing the incredible efforts of the teachers in our community was the right way to officially launch our Foundation,” Renslow noted.” Teachers are the backbone of our society, and we deeply appreciate all that they do.”

Helping with the event is AdoptAClassroom.org, recipient of MOA Community Foundation’s first donation. The organization is a national nonprofit that funds PreK-12 teachers and schools across the United States to help set up more classrooms and students for success and offset the financial burden on teachers. On average, teachers spend $860 of their own money each year to equip their classrooms.

“When we show community support for our teachers, we are telling them that they are not alone and we value the work they are doing,” said AdoptAClassroom.org’s executive director Ann Pifer.

The purpose of MOA’s foundation is based on four pillars of support for community members: mental health, community wellness, education, and financial stability.

“We have had the most heartwarming stories come from our countless charitable events over the past three decades and we felt the time was right to take our efforts to the next level by creating our own Foundation,” said Sara Durhman, Mall of America’s director of community relations.