By Mary Kay Scharf
It seems like summer vacation is just getting started, but school and school supplies will become the talk of our town over the next month. Modeled after a John Elway program in Denver, Colorado, our community’s first major school supply drive occurred in 1996 when a handful of businesses, organizations, and school personnel banded together to create an opportunity for children to begin the school year better prepared to learn. Backpacks and bags were stuffed by volunteers at Sarah Raymond School and distributed to hundreds of children throughout Unit 5 and District 87. In the 19years since, with major business/corporation and church support, multiple supply drives provide the needed materials to thousands of children.
To those listeners who have contributed money or supplies over the years, thank you for your generosity. To those who question providing for “other people’s children,” let me share what it means to enter the school year with a backpack and appropriate supplies.
For some, it means not worrying if others notice they don’t have supplies like all the other boys and girls. For others, it means celebrating the newness of sharpened and unbroken crayons. And sometimes, it means having a choice of what supplies to keep at home so they are able to do homework in the coming months. For the very fortunate, who score a new backpack with a popular design or character,there is pride in sharing this special acquisition. And for hopefully very few less thrilled about school, new supplies are the consolation prize for summer ending and school beginning.
Over 99% of teachers report spending personal money to assist students or to supply their classroom. Average out-of-pocket spending of teachers for a single school year is approaching $500…or nearly 1.5 BILLION dollars across the nation. Should teachers need to do this? No – they shouldn’t – but they do. They continue to spend their own money because it is ABOUT and FOR children. Should you have to spend your own money to fund a school supply drive for other people’s children? No – you shouldn’t, but I hope you do. I hope you do because this IS about the children. It is NOT about the reasons a school supply drive is necessary.
Some people think school is all about rules…and there IS one rule that was a big deal in every school in which I worked…you may have heard of it… the Golden Rule…it is about treating other people the way YOU want to be treated. So, despite what reasons may have kept you from participating in our local school supply drives over the years, I hope you will now heed the golden rule. If you were a child in our community about to begin school without the needed school supplies, how would YOU want to be treated?
Mary Kay Scharf is the Director of Principal Leadership in the Bloomington Public Schools. A Clinton native, she was a teacher for 7 years and has been a principal and school administrator for the past 26 years. She is a volunteer for multiple community organizations, most passionately for the Not In Our Town initiative. The proud mother of 3 and grandmother of one, Mary Kay lives in Normal with her husband, Jamie.
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