Donate Extra School Supplies to a Homeless Shelter
If you have extra school supplies lying around from last year, or if you're about to make that Ulrichs run where you find out your $300 textbook from last semester is now worth exactly the price of two notebooks and a box of crayons, you can donate them to the Genesis II House's Back to School party.
You may recall the Day MGoBlog Saved Christmas, the whole Adopt-a-Shelter thing where people donated gifts for the shelter families to "shop" for. Since the MGoPhilanthropists came through so well in the past, I figured I'd hit you guys up again with another event for the same charity.
This is similar, but smaller deal, at one of the shelters we sponsored for Adopt-a-Shelter, where the volunteers hold a Game Show thing with school supplies being the prizes (the plan is that every kid gets a bookbag filled with school necessities).
Again, the donation method at present is "contact the nice lady," because this isn't a big operation. When we do the big thing again in December, I promise I'll have a Paypal account set up and I will also try to have a drop-off place in Ann Arbor and another in Metro-Detroit. For now, as That Guy at Fingerle Lumber Who was Running for MSA would say, "Deeeeal with it."
Allow me to let Julie Kroflich, a.k.a. "the nice lady" do some further 'splainin:
It's Back-to-School Time!
Saturday, August 14Please join me to generate excitement about the new school year for the children (and women) at Genesis II House*. We will host a Game Show for the children to refresh their academic memories, and provide them with book bags filled with donations of school supplies and other gifts.
Please let me know if you can help collect Game Show Prizes!
Your gifts are needed by Friday, August 6
Julie Kroflich
(248) 478-5168
[email protected]Suggestions:
- Book Bags
- Algebraic Calculators
- Math Flash Cards
- Reading Materials
- Learning Workbooks
- Rulers (metric / standard)
- Safety Scissors
- Glue Sticks
- Crayons / Markers
- Notebooks / Paper
- Pens, Pencils, Erasers
- Pencil Sharpeners
- $20 Payless gift certificate
*Genesis II House is a transitional housing environment, focusing on education, job-training, and parenting skills to break the cycle of homelessness.
As before, I'm envisioning dozens of Detroit kids going to school with Michigan stuff and them becoming lifelong blue fans because of it. I believe stuff has to be in new condition, but I'm checking with her on the bookbags and the calculators. UPDATE: Yes, stuff must all be new.
If I may add something: Whatever her guidelines end up being, I urge mgoblog readers to give NEW stuff. Please.
Past a certain age in school, appearances matter. No matter how grateful these kids might be (or should be) to receive any donation, they also deserve to have things that don't mark them out as charity cases. Let them start school with shiny new cool stuff. Just like most of us got to go buy with our parents every year.
I was just at a huge national conference that had a feel-good "donate your totebag!" program for attendees. When you were done with the conference, you were invited to donate your bag to needy school kids. And I thought, that's a perfect example of a program that means well but falls short. I pity the poor junior high student that is expected to show up at school with a totebag with a big fat logo from some boring professional conference. Lord.