Ah, there they are! I knew I would see them pop up in the seasonal goods section of many stores by early July. The school supplies! Aisles, shelves and bins of goodies to start off the new school year.
Ever since I was in elementary school, I’ve loved looking at and getting to buy school supplies – the choosing of colorful folders and notebooks to hold my homework and class notes; the new box of crayons all lined up like cord wood; the packs of pencils, pens and markers along with cute pencil cases. Sometimes, my mom would let me buy a new lunch box – and in the early 1970s, my metal Partridge Family lunch box notched up my “cool factor” in the lunchroom (or so I thought!).
When my kids were in school, I was just as giddy about school supply shopping as they were. With their school supply lists in hand, we headed to the local big box store and perused the aisles, looking for and checking off each item. It didn’t take much for either of them to persuade me into buying a few extras. My daughter Rachael still loves buying school (and office) supplies – although she has a good excuse since she’s a teacher. My son Ryan, however, became more pragmatic about picking out only the necessities by the time he reached high school and college.
Nowadays, I usually take a detour through the school supplies section while shopping to see what’s new and which colors are popular. There’s a sense of nostalgia, too, when I see the Crayola crayons, Elmers white glue, spiral-bound notebooks, and yellow no. 2 pencils that I also used as a schoolgirl.
But instead of buying school supplies for myself or my kids, I have discovered other ways to satisfy this (slight?) obsession of mine – while also helping others.
Donating School Supplies to Students in Need
The cost of school supplies can add up quickly, making it a struggle for many families to cover these expenses. Plus, students want to have the same supplies as their classmates. So, consider buying extra school supplies to donate to students. Not sure how or where to donate? Here are some ideas:
Watch for donation bins at stores, libraries, places of worship, and other locations. You can pick up packs of pencils, pens, notebook paper, or other items and then drop them off in the bins. Organizations or schools will pick up the supplies and deliver them to students who need them. The company I used to work for sponsored a school supplies donation event every August for area schools.
Search online for organizations that are sponsoring back-to-school donation drives and events either in your community, nationally or internationally. There may be specific items they are requesting, such as from sharpened pencils, white gum erasers and spiral-bound notebooks to backpacks, graphing calculators and electronic tablets. You can also learn where donations will be distributed.
Organize a school supplies donation drive in your office, place of worship, or among friends and family. If you can’t find where to drop off your donations, then create a donation drive yourself. Check in with your local elementary, middle and high schools to understand specific needs. Then post on your social media and send emails to solicit donations. Recruit a couple of friends to help you deliver the donations to the schools.
Ask your teacher friends if there are specific school supplies that his or her students often need. Are there extra supplies the teachers buy with their own money to help their students? You could offer to supply extra white board markers and erasers or donate a couple multi-packs of facial tissue.
Helping Teachers Create Great Learning Environments
Speaking of teachers, don’t forget them when you think about donating school supplies. In addition to extra supplies that teachers often keep on hand to help their students, teachers also supplement the educational materials they use and buy other extras to make their classrooms more engaging and comfortable for learning.
Purchase items from teachers’ wish lists. One of my favorite ways to help teachers is ordering items from their wish lists, such as the wish list function offered through Amazon. I especially enjoy helping new teachers in their first year or so. I usually see a teacher’s post on Facebook, so I can easily click on the wish list link. For example, I’ve purchased classroom décor items like inspirational posters for new teacher Suzi’s elementary music classroom, bulletin board materials for new teacher Brittany’ fourth grade classroom, and a bright chartreuse area rug for a reading area in teacher Tad’s third grade classroom. Remember that wish lists don’t need to be clickable. When Court (my female arm-wrestling friend I wrote about) was a new teacher, she was assigned to teach a reading class in middle school, so she asked for help building a classroom library. I had a great time selecting several books from different genres and by grade level on thriftbooks.com.
Fund all or part of a teacher’s classroom project request. If you’re looking to help provide more than traditional school supplies, you can consider requests for which teachers are seeking funding. For several years I have donated towards teacher requests through the DonorsChoose site, whose focus is on “combating racial and socioeconomic inequity in school funding.” One of my contributions helped purchase biographies about successful women for a classroom library. It’s easy to search for teacher requests by several parameters, including location, historically underfunded schools, funding amount needed to fulfill a request, topic (such as literacy and language, music and the arts, or STEM), grade level, and types of supplies. You can either fund an entire request or make a partial donation towards the total amount – and I especially like this second option because it lets me help more teachers and students by splitting up my available donation amount.
For the Love of School Supplies
Are you in a back-to-school state of mind yet? Have you added some school supplies to your shopping list? Whether those items are for yourself or some lucky students and/or teachers, enjoy your nostalgic journey back through the hallways of your elementary or high school – without the pressure of homework and exams. And if you’re reading this post after the school year is underway, don’t fret. There’s never a bad time to buy some new pens or a cute notebook for your desk … and new school supplies are always welcome in a classroom anytime of the year!
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~ Heather M. and Jodi B.
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