If you’re like me, you’ve already received a list of the supplies that your children are expected to bring to school this year. It seems like the list gets longer and longer each year – ours now includes housecleaning type items like paper towels. So the hunt begins to collect everything they need in time for the start of school.
While we are plugging away at buying everything on our list, I had the chance to participate in the August Champions for Kids Simple Service project which is called Bag It Forward and is sponsored by Elmer’s. Champion for Kids is an organization that is set up to provide assistance to children each month with a different project and sponsor. This months project involves getting school supplies into the hands of those that need them the most and simply cannot afford to buy them. I have participated in these programs before and love being involved. What seems like so little to us can mean so much more to someone who really is in need.
I found the following facts on the Champion for Kids website:
• Teachers spend an average of $356 out-of-pocket on quality school supplies every single year. Many spend up to $1500 just to provide basic classroom necessities.
• More than 31 million students from low-income families receive free or reduced-price school lunches. Their parents often find it challenging to buy project boards, scissors, paper and glue. It’s been proven that having quality supplies is important to building a child’s confidence and self-esteem which, in turn, supports educational accomplishments.
I decided to look around for organizations that collected supplies for school children that really needed them. It didn’t take me long to find quite a few admirable organizations, I decided to make my donation to the Baldwin Center in Pontiac. Their motto is to “Feed, Clothe, Educate and Empower” – they do it all!
The Baldwin Center has an annual tradition of collecting back to school supplies and re-distributing them to around 600 school age children in the Pontiac area. I think what they are doing is awesome!
Since this month’s simple service project with Champion for Kids sponsor was Elmer’s Glue I focused first on purchasing quality Elmer’s products – glue and glue sticks top the list just about everywhere anyway. We headed out to Walmart to pick up the school supplies from the list of requested items from the Baldwin Center website. You can see a photo story of our triphere. We spent just over $25 on some great supplies that should help make a difference – it’s always a learning experience for my son, who thinks he has it rough sometimes.
You can participate in this great program by buying supplies at Walmart and placing them in the Champion for Kids boxes near the front entrances. They also sell pre-packaged backpacks to make it easy.
Next week I’ll show you a little more about the trip we made over to the Baldwin Center to make our donation. Here are some ways for you to get more information on this program or to connect with Elmer’s and Champion for Kids:
- Champions for Kids Twitter Handle: https://twitter.com/#!/champions4kids
- Champions for Kids Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChampionsForKids
- Elmer’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Elmers
- Elmer’s Twitter handle: @Elmers
Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and #BagItForward #Champions4Kids #CBias #SocialFabric
