I began talking with my daughter while she was in high school about what she wanted to do when she graduated from high school. She informed me that she wanted to be a school teacher, that she loved children and wanted to be able to make a difference. Proud of her wanting to help but, I explained to her that school teachers do not make the amount of money they deserve, was she sure she wanted to be a school teacher. Her response was “Yes, Dad you have always told me that it’s not about how much you make, it’s about loving what you do”.
End of discussion and she spent the next 4 years at the University of North Texas and received her degree to be a school teacher. When she started teaching her first year was when I realized how much of her own money is spent for supplies and just the necessities needed to operate a successful class room. Every year before school started I would help her fund the items she needed for her class room with supplies and decorations so the children could enjoy their class.
Shortly after the school shooting that took place in Parkland, Florida My sister Debbie Scott called me to tell me about her idea of Help A Teacher. I had firsthand knowledge of the expense involved prepping a school class room and the supplies it needed through the year. I fell in love with the idea instantly,…….We discussed how it would work, asking people to create a wish list with Amazon of items they felt they needed in their class room and we would share their list to the public on the Help A Teacher page. I believe her and I were the only ones buying the items that were needed for several weeks,…it was just something you couldn’t help doing.
After reading the introduction of the teacher and where they were from and what grade they were teaching, you couldn’t help from clicking on the wish list and fulfilling their needs. When they received the items, they would post pictures of the items they received with a lot of gratitude. It warmed your heart knowing you were helping someone do what they loved, and that was to teach.
One day I was on the page and noticed another donor, even though they were anonymous we knew they were there because the receiving teacher was giving thanks along with the pictures of the items they had received. I believe Debbie and I asked each other,…if the other purchased the items and when we discovered neither of us had we knew we were on to something. We had more donors and the list grew rapidly.
For such a short time of existence the page has grown remarkably fast. We thank all the teachers for helping the page grow, we are now active in all 50 states. A huge thank you to all the donors, the public ones and the private ones, without you this page would not exist today.