Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/436829
Vallejo: Free school supplies for students V A L L E J O E D U C A T I O N A S S O C I A T I O N members give free school supplies purchased by teachers to needy students of all ages. The inspiring October event is known as the Helping Hands project. We discussed the project with VEA President Sheila Gradwohl. Q: This Helping Hands project has been organized in Vallejo for six years now. Yes. We have a lot of students who come to school without the proper school supplies. We decided to give back to our community by providing free supplies. We buy supplies and team up with the local library, and they donate books. Then students come out and pick out their supplies and books that are appropriate for their grade level. And they take everything home to keep. This past October we ended up helping about 1,000 kids. Our Vallejo Education Association pays for it all, and this year we spent about $8,000. We pass out a flier to every student to let them know this is happening. Students are to bring the flier with them. Books, crayons, notebooks, pens, colored pencils, it's all spread out on tables, and students pick out what they want. All Vallejo students can come, all grade levels. They come in, get the free school supplies, and they leave with a smile. Q: This project helps your chapter create good will? It's wonderful. We were in the process of contract negotiations while the last event was going on, and we had most of the students come with their parents. We got a chance to talk to them. They thought the school district was putting this on, but they learned that, no, it was the teachers themselves. We get a lot of support from the parents based on this event. It's amazing. The parents thank us, the students thank us. We Nearly 1,000 students received supplies this year, thanks to VEA members. By Mike Myslinski got some news coverage, we were in the local newspaper again, and the TV news has come out in past years. Q: Why is giving back to the community so important for educators? Some people think that the teachers are separated from the community. Our community does have a high poverty rate, and we want to show that we are part of the community, even if not all of our teachers live here. This is our community. This is where we choose to be. This project is a commit- ment we make, and one that we've kept. It really is an awesome feeling to hand those supplies out to the students. Q: How would a CTA chapter go about doing this? Every summer we go ahead and put it into our chapter budget for the year so we know how much we will be spending. A couple of months before- hand we start figuring out how much the supplies will end up costing. We also need to find our locations to hand out the supplies, because we do not hold these events at school sites. We used the library and the local Omega Boys and Girls Club this year. And then we recruit our teachers to show up and help. Teachers we don't usually see at union functions will show up to hand out the supplies. CTA & You 51 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 5