United Way delivering school supplies to Key West High School
Left to Right: Mary Chase of Iberia Bank, Superintendent Mark T. Porter, Key West High School Principal Amber Bosco,
Rebecca Horan of Atlantic Pacific Insurance, and Chuck Fortier of Iberia Bank.
Ready, Set, Learn!
Annual Supply Drive Helps Ensure Keys Kids are Prepared
Sign up to volunteer with the United Way of the Florida Keys, and you may get on-the-job training to become one of Santa’s Elves. On September 6, in just four hours’ time, United Way volunteers successfully delivered box loads of school supplies to all 18 public schools in Monroe County – from Key Largo to Key West.
These volunteers, including Iberia Bank and Florida Keys Electric Cooperative employees, set their alarm clocks early to be at FKEC’s warehouse for sorting. Before sunrise, a huge Publix tractor trailer truck pulled into Marathon, loaded with skids, including cartons of crayons, pencils, glue and notebooks. By 10 a.m., the volunteers were heading out with their packages, and by the time school bells rang at 2:45 p.m., deliveries to all schools were complete.
Superintendent of Schools Mark T. Porter met up with a delivery crew at Key West High, and helped carry boxes. "We greatly appreciate the on-going support our students receive from the annual Stuff the Bus program, providing many students with the supplies they need to learn and reach our high expectations,” he said.
Nearly half of Monroe County students (43.38%) qualified for free and/or reduced price meals in 2011, up 24 percent since 2008. This means over 3600 students come from families who struggle to buy food, let alone items from “back to school” shopping lists provided by their schools.
“Each fall, more kids than you would think show up for school without the basic tools to learn like pencils and paper,” said Margie Smith, president of the United Way of the Florida Keys, “Our school supply drive brings the community together to solve this problem.”
With more than $13 million in cuts since 2010, many Monroe County schools don’t have the money to purchase supplies for students who show up unprepared for whatever reason, including 300+ homeless students. Some research shows that the average public school teacher spends $1,200 of his or her money every year – not reimbursed – on students’ needs and classroom supplies.
Generous community members wanting our children to have the tools to succeed shopped at Office Depot stores in Marathon and Key Largo and OfficeMax in Key West, using wish lists provided by teachers and/or principals from each school. In addition to items purchased by store patrons, Office Depot and OfficeMax each donated thousands of dollars of additional supplies, including several hundred backpacks.
Shoppers at Publix stores Keys-wide donated $3150.00 by purchasing “SCHOOL TOOLS for Cool Kids” cards in denominations of $5, $7 or $10. The United Way of the Florida Keys applied these funds to purchase supplies for individual schools using their wish lists.
“What a great example of how the United Way brings value to our local communities, said Superintendent Porter. “This is another reason why we continue to encourage our employees to support the United Way."
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Click here for a .pdf of the press release.