Teachers Use Social Media To Help Gather School Supplies
BOSTON (CBS) -- Kelly Tynan is a special needs teacher in Boston. With school just weeks away she's focused on her school supply list. "I need dry erase markers, Lysol wipes, and even Play-Doh."
In the past, she's spent more than $1,500 of her own money on schools supplies in a single year.
"Now more than ever it's really coming out of my pocket for what we need for our classroom," she said. But this year she's taking part in a social media blitz called "Clear the list."
Teachers can post online their Amazon supply list for their classrooms on Twitter. Through the generosity of strangers, many of them other teachers, the items get directly sent to their designated schools.
Tynan said she's tweeted more than 200 lists of other teachers. "You get a good feeling, you're helping other teachers who need it maybe even more than you do," she said.
Janina Santiago, of Lawrence is also making a difference. She and her friend decided to help teachers in the Lawrence Public Schools with their own Teacher Supply Drive fundraiser.
"She reached out to her teacher friends. I reached to my teacher friends and they all said we need basic things pencils, erasers, high lighters," Santiago said. She placed donation boxes through the city for people to drop off supplies and she and her team have raised close to $2,000 in cash.
In just about two weeks, Santiago and her team will take all the supplies and money raised and to a pop-up classroom at the Lawrence Public Library. That way, any teacher in the Lawrence Public Schools can come and pick up all the supplies they need.
"They are going to go in and grab only the necessities they need for the school year," she said. So whether donating online or in a donation bin, teachers are leaning a valuable lesson in kindness.
"A small act of kindness can go a long way," Santiago said.