Sharing School Supplies with Champions for Kids and Elmer’s

I love that school supply shopping for us is so easy right now. Sure, the stores have “suggested” lists for first graders and Abbi’s teacher provided us with a list of items she will need to get started, but it’s the easy stuff!

Crayons, pencils, glue, hand sanitizer, some folders. All very general and basic stuff! And non-expensive!!!

So, while I feel like we are getting off really easy this year, I thought it might be a great time to help out one of our local non-profits and teach my girls a valuable lesson!

Once we got to the store, the girls bee-lined it to the Back To School Zone. They ooo-ed and aahh-ed over the backpacks {which they did not need}, the colorful pencil boxes, lunch bags, and their favorite characters on folders. All very exciting stuff!

But then we took a few minutes to talk about how there were lots of kids who wouldn’t be able to come shopping for this stuff. That there were lots of kids who wouldn’t even be able to buy a brand new box of colors or pencils this year.

My girls were dumfounded. They have never known a time where we didn’t have crayons or pencils or glue or paper in the house at their disposal.

Then I told them that, in addition to our school supply shopping list, we would be purchasing seven pencil boxes and filling them with school supplies for kids who really needed them! They were ready for the task of filling those boxes!

So we filled our cart with Elmer’s Glue Sticks and Elmer’s School Glue, crayons and pencils, erasers, and pencil boxes.

Check out more photos of our shopping trip on Google+.

This week we will fill our school boxes and donate them to the kids at Teen Parent Resources’ teen MoMs program. The teen MoMs program works with teens who are pregnant or parenting. Some of the girls who participate in the program have been part of the program for a few years now and have school aged children. Some of the girls are coming for their first time but have school aged children in addition to their current pregnancy. The situations vary but the need is always constant.

Many of these moms have a hard enough time putting food on the table each week so new school supplies isn’t necessarily a priority. We wanted to help make going back to school extra special for these kids by providing them with their very own pencil box filled with the supplies to get them started!

I was very excited to be able to partner with Champions for Kids and Elmer’s Bag It Forward program which inspired me to do this. The Bag It Forward program encourages people to donate new school supplies to local classrooms, schools, and charities.

When you’re out picking up your last minute school supplies {or if you’re just starting…no judgment here}, consider picking up a few extras! Even if you can’t think of a specific child or charity to donate them to, you can always give them to your child’s teacher. Chances are he/she will know of some kids in the class who could use a little extra help with school supplies throughout the year!

You can learn more about Champions for Kids and Elmer’s Bag It Forward and more SIMPLE Service Projects by checking them out on your favorite social media platform: facebook.com/ChampionsForKids, @Champion4Kids, facebook.com/Elmers, @Elmers.

And stay tuned next week when I tell you more about the pencil boxes we put together!

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids #CBias #SocialFabric #BagItForward #Champion4Kids. All opinions are my own.