help support our educational efforts

GTC Covid-19 recovery effort

GoFundMe fundraiser: Support Geological Times Corporation

Funding goal: $60,000

Who we are:

For over a decade now, Geologic Times Corporation (based in Ijamsville, MD) and its D.B.A.s GTC Rock Shop & Mobile Mining Experience have been proudly providing fun & educational geosciences related programs, products, and experiences all with a single goal in mind: inspiring "kids of all ages" in the sciences. This has never been, and will never be a profit driven endeavor. Every program and activity we offer involves hands-on learning experiences with educational elements specifically designed to be so engaging and entertaining that few students even realize they are learning things. It is our belief that one of the most successful ways to teach anything is to make it fun and the results speak for themselves!

As an educational company, the success of our efforts sadly can never be measured by dollars earned, in large part because it often costs far more to run our educational programs than we could possibly charge for them. Instead, our success is based on achieving our mission plan of inspiring “kids of all ages” in the sciences, not dollars earned. For me and my entire staff, our greatest reward is knowing our hard work and efforts are making a difference, and that is something we could not be prouder of. With your help today, we will be able to continue to do so for many years to come. We encourage you all to share your stories of the impact our efforts have had with your school, your youth group, your summer camp, and your families with others that are reading this and unaware of who we are and what we do. Our website at www.GTCrocks.com also offers even more ways to learn about us and ways you can help support our efforts.

Where we are now:

Due to the COVID-19 virus, our operations have been severely impacted. To date, we have been unable to secure help from the state of Maryland and our efforts to secure PPP (Payroll Protection Plan) from the Small Business Administration have failed. Your help and support is critical to the success of our recovery efforts as well as our future goals.

Running educational programs is extremely costly and we rely heavily on our retail sales division to help make our educational program efforts possible. A large portion of our funding for the entire year comes from revenue generated from retail shows and county fairs. We sadly lost our spring shows and summer fairs, and in all likelihood, our fall show schedule will suffer as well. Our retail store at Francis Scott Key Mall is also key to funding our efforts and it was closed for just over three months. While now open once again, it is not likely to provide anything close to the level of funding that would normally be expected for perhaps a year or more. If that was not enough, every educational program and activity we had booked for the rest of 2020, and a large portion of 2021 were sadly cancelled.

It’s important to note that the GTC Rock Shop at FSK Mall had just enabled us to recover a large portion of our losses from theft and vandalism issues we had faced over the 14-month period prior to opening the store. These recovery efforts have been essentially eroded away by the financial toll of the pandemic. We were also extremely close to signing a long-term lease for a 6,000 square foot geosciences entertainment and education center, which would have included a 50 seat classroom, a wide range of educational display cases, activity room, gem mining flumes, geode cracking stations, and, of quartz, our GTC Rock Shop.

We were so close to taking a huge step forward in our efforts to inspire “kids of all ages” in the sciences and with your help today, we can get back on track and make a far bigger and positive difference in people’s lives; something we can all be proud of.


What are you helping to fund?

● Help support the success of our recovery efforts from COVID-19 and getting our staff back to working pre-pandemic hours.

● Help support our efforts to adjust to the “new normal” by developing scalable DIY educational programs that can be utilized in classroom settings as well as used remotely by individuals, homeschooling groups, schools, youth groups, nature centers, and more. This will include options to expand the base programs with advanced lesson plans; Zoom-based GTC staff run classroom sessions; YouTube videos; and additional activities and materials options. These types of fun & educational programs and activities are desperately needed right now! With your help, we can and will provide it!

● Help support our efforts to secure local classroom space to enable us to run fun, safe, and educational programs & activities.

● Help support our continuing efforts to make a difference by achieving our mission plan of inspiring “kids of all ages” in the sciences.


Funding goal and closing thoughts:

While we have set the goal at $60,000, our actual funding need is far greater! If we secure more funding then the goal set, those funds will be utilized to expand our scalable DIY educational program efforts beyond what is already planned. This is critically needed right now by schools, nature centers, youth groups, etc. not only locally, but nationally too!


On a personal note, asking for your financial support like this is NOT something I ever thought I would consider, especially so when so many others are also in great need of help and support. However, so many of you asked and even begged for me to create a way for others to help us and shared stories about what an impact our efforts have had. I, as well as my staff, was very touched. Then, one of our longtime clients and supporters of our efforts changed my mind about accepting help from others by pointing out that by not accepting that help was being a bit “selfish,” and I will admit, it stung a bit! In any case, she pointed out that while my reasons for not wanting the help were admirable, I also needed to understand that without outside help, we would be simply trying to survive and I would be unfairly preventing myself and my staff from doing the very thing my company was all about, and that is inspiring “kids of all ages” in the sciences. This was something she felt was even more important now than ever, and she is so very right! That is how we have come to this point, and I now warmly welcome and encourage your support.

There is so much uncertainty in the world right now, but one thing is constant: the commitment and passion my staff and I share in trying to make a difference. The need for what we can provide and our ability to make a true difference in so many lives has never been bigger. Yet sadly our financial ability to make that happen is now dependent on the support of people like you. Every dollar helps, and if you donate to our cause, you can rest assured that your money is going towards supporting a local small business doing really big and important things through our geoscience education efforts. With your help, we can take steps to ensure our recovery, resume near/new normal operations, and renew our geosciences educational efforts with an innovative and improved approach.


I want to thank you for considering supporting us, and as always, we welcome your thoughts and suggestions,

Tom Cummins, Founder & President
Geologic Times Corporation
DBA GTC Rock Shop & Mobile Mining Experience