Scraps KC, a local nonprofit reuse store, had a goal to collect 2,000 pounds of used school supplies for classrooms in need. The community showed up big time, donating more than 8,000 pounds instead.
"This has been very successful," said Brenda Mott, the owner of Scraps KC. "We've been able to serve 101 classrooms at 44 different schools."
In order to be adopted by the Scraps KC "Adopt-a-class" program, teachers had to be from schools with a 90 percent or higher free/reduced lunch and tell the nonprofit why they were in need of school supplies. One teacher's message stood out above the rest.
"Ms. Daughtery was one of the teachers that applied to be adopted, and we had some gracious donors that afforded us the opportunity to select one teacher to receive a full class of supplies as well as a field trip," said Mott. "She wrote with such passion and dedication and enthusiasm for her students and for education that we wanted to reward her with a full class full of everything."
Mott, along with several volunteers who helped clean the supplies and two generous donors, surprised Daughtery in her classroom on her second day of school.
"I think it's pretty exciting," said Daughtery. "I didn't expect it to be this big of a thing. I think there's a need everywhere for school supplies. We have a whole lot of school supplies in kindergarten that we use and it goes really quick."
Scraps KC received so many used school supplies that they are opening a teacher resource center to give teachers access to gently used supplies, like glue, notebooks, crayons, etc. all year round.
For more on Scraps KC and its mission visit http://www.scrapskc.org
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Scraps KC provides used school supplies for classrooms
Homeless volunteers help kids get ready for next school year
