Schoolhouse Rocks!
A teacher affects eternity he can never tell, where his influence stops.
—Henry Brooks Adams
If you’re from Portland or surrounding areas, you’re probably familiar with one of my absolute favorite worthy causes: Schoolhouse Supplies. It’s a non-profit that maintains a volunteer-run Free Store for Teachers stocked with classroom supplies and educational tools—everything from glue sticks and colored pencils to Crayons and notebooks.
The Free Store is open to all 3,000-plus teachers in the Portland Public School System, and each school is assigned eight shopping weeks throughout the year. In its decade of service, Schoolhouse Supplies has distributed nearly 11 million dollars in supplies, logged in more than 50,000 volunteer hours, and on a truly graceful note, supplied more than two million classrooms with pencils. Schoolhouse Supplies also puts products directly in the hands of students through partnering programs and even collects corporate office supplies such as old letterhead and refurbishes the cast-offs into usable supplies, like sketchbooks.
Obviously, Schoolhouse Supplies depends on the kindness of strangers: they rely on cash and in-kind donations, and grassroots support efforts. Companies can volunteer to act as donation drop-off points, while volunteers groups or individuals can host school supplies drives. So in honor of the school year about to get underway, I’d like to issue a little challenge to all the Oregon Chai lovers out there.
Host a school supplies drive in your neck of the woods (in Oregon or out of state) for Schoolhouse Supplies or a similar agency and make a difference in your local schools—not to mention a child’s life! The person or group that raises the most supplies by November 1 will receive a deluxe Oregon Chai gift basket. What’s more, I’ll give every person or group a shout-out by name in OregonChai Café. Join me in making a difference!
Cheers,
OregonChaiMama