CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – A San Francisco-based company, Ripple, donated $29 million to teachers across the country and several of those teachers work in the eastern Carolinas.

Ripple used the large donation to pay for every request teachers had up on DonorsChoose.org. It’s a crowdfunding site where teachers can ask for additional classroom materials.

Over $35,000 from the donation covered 56 projects requested by Horry County Schools teachers.

“I honestly didn’t think I’d ever get it funded,” said Conway High School theater teacher, Katie Smith. She used the site to request six iPad minis for her students to film and edit short films.

Art teacher at Conway High School, Brittany Hallick, had three requests paid for including tablets and iPads for her students to explore the digital art medium.

“I’ve had projects funded in the past but I also have had projects that didn’t get funded. You never know,” said Hallick.

The teachers found out about the large donation in a unique way.

“I got an email from Steven Colbert saying there was going to be a big surprise tonight on my show,” said Hallick. “I thought, that is way past my bed time so that won’t be happening but the next day I checked my email.”

Colbert announced the news on his show and when the teachers woke up in the morning they had emails that told them their projects were completely funded.

“I couldn’t believe it I started freaking out,” said Hallick. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got them! They funded all of them, it was really cool.”

“We were all shocked!” added Smith. “We called each other like, ‘Oh my gosh we got what we wanted!”

Both teachers said they are extremely grateful for the donation and so are their students.

“It’s a great lessons for the students because you say, ‘This was given to us from someone’s heart and wallet, so what can we do to show how grateful we are?'” said Smith. “I think it teaches the kids a good lesson [that] it’s not bad to ask for help and when you get help, say thank you.”

To see if teachers in your district have projects on DonorsChoose.org click: here.