OPENING THE MIND

What does a million dollars equal? If you're one of the teachers who have shopped at Dayton's Crayons to Classrooms (DC2C), the answer is 285,714 dictionaries, 462,963 pencils, 555,556 crayons, 740,741 notebooks, or 1.25 million glue sticks!

On April 13, 2011, Crayons to Classrooms celebrated their Million Dollar Moment with the community including board members, staff, and donors. The celebration marked the distribution of more than a million dollars in product donations to Dayton area teachers since opening in January 2009.

Dayton's Crayons to Classrooms is a nonprofit resource center that helps under-funded teachers from low-income schools in the Dayton region obtain free school supplies for their students. Supplies are provided at no cost to teachers, families, or schools. Since most teachers shopping at DC2C reach into their own pockets to provide supplies for students, getting supplies at no cost is a blessing.

Not only do teachers save money, but they can spend more time teaching and the entire classroom improves. One teacher shared, "I had supplies available for student use, so students without supplies did not lose class time. It has been great. ”

Ultimately, DC2C's goal is to serve all high-need K-12 schools in the Dayton region. This is a goal which they believe is achievable through support from the community and donors like the Mathile Family Foundation. The Mathile Family often says "The greatest social and economic equalizer is education," and providing supplies is at the very foundation of that sentiment. One student sums it up best in a thank you to DC2C stating "People like you are the reason kids make it through school. Without supplies, how would we do our work or pass school? Without you, we wouldn't have any supplies, but you gave them to us. Thank you very much!"

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“People like you are the reason kids make it through school. Without supplies, how would we do our work or pass school?”