South Florida

More Than 100 Boxes Of School Supplies Donated During Supporting Our Schools

Volunteers loaded about a hundred boxes of donated school supplies onto a bus this afternoon outside the NBC 6 studio. That was the take from just one drop-off location from our Supporting Our Schools initiative.

South Floridians gave back to their community in impressive fashion.

“My fiancee, she’s a counselor at a school, so that’s what we do, try to help the kids, the unfortunate kids that have nothing,” explained Craig Buckner as he dropped off bags of notebooks this morning outside the Miramar Fire-Rescue station 84.

Among those donating supplies, many seem to have connections to the education world.

“I’m a former teacher so I know how important it is to have kids bring school supplies and how important it is to make sure they come to class prepared so they can get the best education possible,” said Deanna Rivero, after dropping boxes of paper into the collection box.

One of the agencies leading this supply drive, Communities in Schools, said the psychological impact here on kids should not be underestimated.

“When they’re not prepared, they don’t come to school, they don’t come to class, there’s a lot of absenteeism, and eventually they just may want to drop out so something as simple as a school supply campaign really helps to make sure our kids are in school,” said Isabel Fernandez, the board chair of Communities in Schools, which is a national organization dedicated to providing services to inner city schools. 

Fernandez says the community definitely came through, with more than 400 backpacks being donated along with tons of other supplies.

There’s also another way to help, without leaving your desk. Go to the crowd funding site DonorsChoose.org. Teachers post their proposals there, and you can choose which ones you’d like to support.

We’ve already isolated proposals from South Florida teachers at NBC 6.com.

Third-grade teacher Tracy Lovell, from Challenger Elementary School in Tamarac, uses DonorsChoose as a way to give her kids an academic boost.

“It’s what we do as teachers, we always have to go above and beyond for our students so DonorsChoose is just a way for us to reach everything we can quickly and hopefully donors will be able to fund us,” Lovell said.

Most of us take this stuff for granted, but the average American high school student needs about a thousand dollars in supplies per year.

That’s a heavy lift for some in our community, so any donation goes a long way.

You can still drop off supplies through next weekend, to take advantage of the sales tax holiday, at the Coral Square Mall, Dadeland, The Falls, and the International Mall.  

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