More than $115,000 and 250,000 school supplies raised in Wake back-to-school drive
WakeEd Partnership collected more than $115,000 in monetary donations and more than 250,000 in donated school supplies for students and teachers during its back-to-school drive this year, the organization announced Wednesday.
“These donated supplies have already been flowing into classrooms all across Wake County and helping ease the burden for our amazing teachers,” WakeEd Partnership President Keith Poston said.
The nonprofit, which is focused on connecting the business community with the Wake County Public School System, collected donations from July 12 through Aug. 23.
It initially received $65,691 in monetary donations. But another group, 4Others Foundation, had promised to match up to $50,000 of donations, raising the eventual total to $115,691.
More than 100 companies and organizations hosted their own school supply drives on behalf of WakeEd Partnership, more than double the 40 that did so last year.
WakeEd Partnership expects more donations to come in.
WakeEd Partnership runs a school supply “store” for teachers, in which teachers can collect a limited number of school supplies each quarter.
A survey by the nonprofit, back when the store first opened, found that teachers spend about $900 each year of their own money on school supplies. State funding for school supplies is about half of what it was in 2010, and inflation is raising the cost stocking a school classroom.
“I hope our teachers — and frankly our state legislature — sees that this community supports our teachers, believes in our public schools and wants them supported adequately and is demonstrating it through their own generosity,” Poston said.
About 2,000 teachers shopped at the store in August alone. The school system has more than 11,000 teachers.
