BURBANK, Calif. — In honor of our public school teachers and in celebration of Young Sheldon’s third season premiere Thursday, September 26, at 8:00 pm ET/PT on CBS, The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation (TCLFF) continues its public school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education commitment and today announced it has partnered with DonorsChoose.org by committing to a $200,000.00 matching gift in support of middle school STEM projects. On September 24, 25 and 26, TCLFF will be doubling all donations made on the DonorsChoose.org site for any middle school applied science projects tagged with the Young Sheldon logo. To date, teachers at 83 percent of the nation’s public schools have created a classroom project request on DonorsChoose.org.

“We’re so grateful for the support of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation and Young Sheldon,” said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org. “This funding will help middle school STEM teachers give important learning opportunities to their students, spurring America’s future scientists, engineers, and mathematicians to success.”

Chuck Lorre said, “On behalf of all of us at Young Sheldon, we are honored to continue our support of public school STEM education and teachers by partnering with DonorsChoose.org. Our public school teachers are truly unsung heroes, and it’s shocking that, on average, they spend about $479.00 of their own money for classroom projects. We hope this matching gift will, in some small way, help teachers and students bring their classroom dreams to life.”

The Young Sheldon Back to School Match promotion with DonorsChoose.org in support of public school teachers and middle school applied science projects follows The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation’s collaborative establishment of THE YOUNG SHELDON STEM INITIATIVE in 2018, The Big Bang Theory Graduate Fellowship Fund in 2019, and The Big Bang Theory Scholarship Endowment at UCLA in 2015.

THE YOUNG SHELDON STEM INITIATIVE provides two-year grants to 20 public schools in Southern California and East Texas, totaling more than $600,000.00 in funding designed specifically to support each school’s STEM teachers and their in-class curriculum, after-school programs and experiential field trips. THE YOUNG SHELDON STEM INITIATIVE currently reaches more than 22,000 students; 25% of those students qualify for free and reduced lunches. The Big Bang Theory Scholarship Endowment at UCLA was launched to assist undergraduate students in need of financial aid who are pursuing their higher education in STEM fields. The more than $5 million endowment includes unprecedented partner donations from TBBT cast, producers, crew, CBS, and Warner Bros. Television, among others. The Big Bang Theory Graduate Fellowship Fund provides $20,000.00 per year in funding for TBBT/UCLA scholars who have been accepted into a STEM-focused graduate or PhD program. Of the inaugural class of 20 TBBT/UCLA scholars who graduated from UCLA in June 2019, three will be attending graduate school.

About Young Sheldon

For more than a decade on The Big Bang Theory, audiences have come to know the iconic, eccentric and extraordinary Sheldon Cooper (played by Emmy® winner Jim Parsons). This single-camera, half-hour comedy gives viewers the chance to meet him in childhood in East Texas, as the 9-year-old Sheldon (Iain Armitage) embarks on his innocent, awkward and hopeful journey toward the man he will become. Young Sheldon stars Iain Armitage, Zoe Perry, Lance Barber, Montana Jordan and Raegan Revord, with Annie Potts and Jim Parsons. Created by Chuck Lorre & Steven Molaro, the series is produced by Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc., in association with Warner Bros. Television. Lorre, Molaro, Parsons and Todd Spiewak are executive producers. Young Sheldon returns for its third season premiere on Thursday, September 26, at 8:00 pm ET/PT on CBS.

About DonorsChoose.org

DonorsChoose.org is the leading platform for giving to public schools. Teachers across America use the site to create projects requesting resources their students need, and donors give to the projects that inspire them. Since its founding by a Bronx teacher in 2000, nearly 4 million people and partners have given $875 million to projects reaching 35 million students. Unique among education funding platforms, the DonorsChoose.org team vets each project request and ships resources directly to the school. Every donor receives photos of their project in action, thank-yous from the classrooms, and a cost report showing how every dollar was spent. DonorsChoose.org was the first charity to make the top 100 on Fast Company’s list of Most Innovative Companies in the World. Visit www.donorschoose.org to learn more.

Twitter Pitch: To celebrate the @YoungSheldon S3 premiere, The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation partners w/@DonorsChoose and makes $200,000 pledge to support public middle school applied science projects: https://bit.ly/2m1Z5UB #YoungSheldon #YoungSheldonHEARTStem

Twitter Pitch: VIDEO: @YoungSheldon star Iain Armitage @IainLoveTheatre on The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation partnership w/@DonorsChoose and $200,000 pledge to support public middle school applied science projects:https://bit.ly/2kUIQID#YoungSheldon #YoungSheldonHEARTStem

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Contacts:

Warner Bros Television: Marc Klein (818) 954-7668, marc.klein@warnerbros.com

CBS: Tracey Rabb (818) 655-1590, tracey.raab@cbs.com

The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation: Trisha Cardoso (818) 977-1700, trisha@tclff.org

DonorsChoose.org: Chris Pearsall, media@donorschoose.org