KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City man is using the power of social media to help teachers nationwide.
Chris Kamler is the man behind "The Fake Ned" Twitter account. Thursday night, Kamler tweeted about wanting to help teachers get all of the school supplies they need.
Cam Hill, an eighth grade teacher in Lee's Summit, Missouri, said he came across the post and commented with his Amazon Wish List.
Jill Eltiste, a second and third grade teacher in Liberty, Missouri, said she was scrolling through Twitter and decided to do the same thing.
“This definitely is inspiring and definitely gives me hope," said Eltiste.
Kamler's Twitter account has more than 16,000 followers, so reaching a larger audience is not much of a problem.
“For whatever reason, I've got a fairly large following on my goofy little twitter account, and we've seen these teachers Amazon lists or Staples lists come through, and so I was like, I'll just start retweeting a couple of them," Kamler said.
With the #TeacherWishList, Kamler said he would retweet teachers who share their supply lists on the thread.
“It's probably just the bare minimum that I could do, just hit the retweet button, but if I could do that, I'm glad it's helping a little bit," said Kamler.
With ever-changing COVID-19 protocols, teachers have been tasked with navigating those safety measures while educating students on all platforms.
“Last year I taught virtually with literally a laptop and a document camera, and I'm sitting at my desk right now and those are the two items that I have and that's what I used all year," said Eltiste.
Whether students are in school or online, teachers have to be prepared even if students are not.
“To have that extra supply and just be able to be like hey, it's no big deal, we've got you covered, that kind of thing, that really does make a big difference," Hill, the eighth grade teacher, said.
One tweet, with one goal is reaching teachers all over the country - proving social media can be a platform for positivity.
“I've already had people reach out to me saying they've purchased things for my classroom and so that's the idea, we want to make sure kids have what they need," Hill said.
—
During the pandemic, 41 Action News wants to spotlight people, organizations and companies helping the community. To share these stories, use #WeSeeYouKSHB on social media.
