In some neighborhoods, the school buses are already rumbling down the streets in the early hours, stopping to swoop our children up and take them off to school. Kids with backpacks wait with their caregivers and fellow classmates to climb into the buses. But some of the backpacks are empty, and in some cases, there are no backpacks at all. Teachers wait with anticipation for the students to pile into the classrooms, but sometimes the teachers are filled with anxiety. Why? Classrooms often lack the supplies necessary for kids to be successful.
Basics like notebooks, writing instruments, crayons, and paper towels are on the school supply lists, but they are not showing up in the kids’ backpacks. Sometimes parents just cannot afford these essentials, and the school does not provide them. What happens then? Teachers are forced to make do without the items that are necessary for the classroom, which has a direct impact on the kids’ ability to thrive and learn.
EXCEPT, in most cases teachers step in and use their own funds to create a better environment for learning—teachers whose incomes in many cases are near the poverty level. In North Carolina, for example, the average salary for an elementary school teacher is $42,870. (In many states it is even less.) That equates to about $20 per hour for a 40-hour work week. Anyone know a teacher who works only 40 hours per week—I don’t. Those are classroom hours. The work begins again when they go home to grade papers and prepare lesson plans for the next day.
Borderless Charity, Inc, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington, NC, is reaching out to help. We are beginning by adopting a school in North Carolina and a school in Mabilog Concepcion Tarlac in the Philippines.
“When it really hit home for me was watching the national news feature here in the U.S. that tells the story of an elementary school teacher in Oklahoma who makes about $32,000 a year,” said Christopher Franko, Borderless Charity CEO. “After spending the summer months shopping at garage sales for school supplies, she literally resorted to panhandling on the street to make sure her classroom was stocked with supplies that her students needed to be successful. I knew I had to do something.”
Providing supplies is just one example of a need that we can meet as we send our children back to school. We are on a mission to stock as many schools with supplies as we can, one classroom and one school at a time. Won’t you jump on the back-to-school bandwagon with us? There are many ways to donate. Find out how by visiting our website: http://www.borderlesscharity.org/. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pg/BorderlessCharity
Read more about the courageous Oklahoma teacher who panhandled her way to stocking her classroom for success here: http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/oklahoma-teacher-panhandles-raise-money-school-supplies/story?id=48815271
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