WakeEd is helping Wake County teachers by providing necessary school supplies for their classes. | Steven Weirather/Pixabay
WakeEd is helping Wake County teachers by providing necessary school supplies for their classes. | Steven Weirather/Pixabay
In recent years, more teachers have had to spend their own money on supplies for school projects.
WakeEd Partnership is a nonprofit that aims to help teachers better supply their students without digging into their own wallets. The organization launched this year’s school supply drive in July to help stock shelves at WakeEd's Tools4Schools free supply store in Raleigh.
“As of today (Tuesday) we have collected more than 125,000 items as supplies for Wake County Public Schools and Wake County teachers,” Keith Poston, WakeEd president, said in a WTVD report. “We have had pallets come in the back door, get loaded onto the shelves and then walk out the front door.”
Not only did the drive collect school supplies, but it also brought in at least $50,000 in donations, including a $5,000 contribution from the Fraternal Order of Police, Poston said.
In Wake County, Superintendent Cathy Moore said teachers have been known to spend more than $500 a year on average to help their students.
"So to be able to have a place, this collaboration with Wake Education Partnership, this Tools4Schools site, so that teachers can come pick up what they need for their classrooms — and have it done at no cost, is incredibly important,” Moore said.
About 25% of the county's teachers have signed up for the free school supplies, in turn, they can get 100 points per quarter to exchange for those items instead of cash.
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