If there is one thing that our nation seems to be failing at, it's that whole "school starts after Labor Day" thing. I'm not sure what the problem is, I just know that some people started school weeks ago. Others are still waiting, but not for long.
We're still waiting. Alexis would very much so like to be done with the waiting because school is her most favorite thing in the world (so she says ... for now). She's ready to find out who her teacher will be, what day of the week she will have gym class, what supplies she will get to buy, etc. She wants to be ready. (Don't get me started on why we don't know ANY of those things yet. It makes me cranky that we're six days from starting and don't have a clue what school supplies she needs, even as stores have already started clearing out the school supplies to make way for Halloween decorations. ANYWAY.)
She's not quite ready, but many kids are.
Including the kids y'all helped at Pittsburgh's Center for Victims.
I don't really have words for how it feels to drive up to a building where people go to get support after violence has disrupted their lives. The building is filled with people who give their time because they want to change the world. It's filled with people who have seen things I'm very glad to have never seen for myself, other than on TV. It's filled with memories of yesterday and hope for tomorrow.
This weekend, a small part of that building was filled with school supplies. Because of you.
The tally as of right now is:
- 40 backpacks
- 42 notebooks
- 40 pencil cases
- 26 packs of lined paper
- 36 dozen pencils
- 16 lunchboxes
- 32 bottles of glue
- 56 glue sticks
- 36 rulers
- 15 packs of colored pencils
- 10 packs of markers
- 120 highlighters
- 11 USB drives
- 14 packs of pens
- 2 packs of mechanical pencils
- 12 protractors
- 10 packs of index cards
- 75 folders
- 12 binders
- 42 pairs of scissors
And that's SO FAR. I fully expect a few more boxes of school supplies to trickle in this week. (I plan to deliver them this weekend -- if you shipped something you don't think will be delivered by Friday, please email me and let me know so I can time the delivery perfectly.)
That's a lot of school supplies.
That's a lot of kids who woke up this morning ready for school.
You don't know what those kids look like. You don't know how old they are. You don't know their names. But you helped anyway.
That's pretty amazing.
From the kids who will never know what you've done and from the adults in those kids' lives who can't say it right now -- thank you.
And thank you from me. It's this sort of thing that makes me proud to be a blogger, and even prouder to be surrounded by so many amazing people.
(P.S. The winner of the Samsung Galazy tablet has been notified. Check your email, yo!)
