Elmer’s #BagitForward – Donating School Supplies in Your Community
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I had the fantastic opportunity to participate in Elmer’s Bag it Forward campaign this year! Bag it Forward is a campaign that puts school supplies in the hands of needy children and charities every year! You can participate too! Simply purchase school items for students this year, donate them to a needy family, school, or charity, and then upload your photos on the Bagged Forward site! (no blog post needed!)
A trip to Walmart showed me that the Back to School season is in full swing! There were school supplies everywhere!! My son is starting K-4 this year, so we decided to purchase a few supplies for his first year to school, as well as some school supplies to donate to someone else who needed them! I made a list of a few must-buy items before I left for the store. I definitely needed backpacks, Elmer’s glue, pens, pencils, folders, paper, binders, etc.
The prices were definitely just right! $.15 for folders and $.40 for Elmer’s School Glue – that is definitely my stock up price!! I was almost giddy walking through Walmart checking out how cheap everything was! It’s sad to think of all of the students who can’t even afford a few dollars for school supplies. I was VERY excited to be joining in this campaign!
I loved this display! Right in the front of the store there was a large school bus cardboard display for the Box Tops program! After wandering around the store for over an hour grabbing tons of school supplies left and right – I checked out with a cart FULL of supplies! In fact the prices were so good I decided to buy 3 book bags instead of 2. One preschool sized book bag for my son, and two book bags for The Monarch School, a local school for children on the autistic spectrum. Because of the cost for specialized care in the school, many families have a difficult time purchasing school supplies as well.
I came home with so many school supplies I couldn’t get them all in one picture very easily! It may look like a ton of school supplies, but I really wanted to purchase even more! Knowing that just one or two book bags of school supplies can make a huge difference for a family struggling to pay the bills is a really good feeling! This was a great opportunity to teach my son about sharing with others.
Since my son is only going to K-4 next year he didn’t need many supplies. I bought him a book bag, lunch bag, some Elmer’s construction paper, Elmer’s glue, a ruler, and some pencils. I purchased two book bags for The Monarch School. I decided on a nice blue gender neutral book bag, but then I saw an adorable girls book bag I just had to get as well!
In the Blue Bag I Donated:
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Binder
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Filler Paper
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5- 1 Subject Notebooks
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2 Folders
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Elmer’s Glue Sticks
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Pens
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Pencils
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Elmer’s School Glue
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Crayons
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Ruler
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Elmer’s Construction Paper
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Markers
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Erasers
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Scissors
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Highlighters
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Tissue Box
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Pencil Box
In the Pink Bag I Donated:
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Binder
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Filler Paper
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5- 1 Subject Notebooks
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3 Folders
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Elmer’s Glue Sticks
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Pens
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Pencils
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Elmer’s School Glue
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Crayons
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Scissors
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Sharpener
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Highlighters
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Markers
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Colored Pencils
The book bags were so full I couldn’t possibly stuff much more in to them! I decided when the kids woke up the next morning we would head down to The Monarch School and drop them off! I was so excited that my son could help! He could barely carry the bags they were so heavy for him!
The Monarch School, a school for children on the autism spectrum, is an incredible choice for any child that has special needs. They do a fantastic job with including all of these children in activities and state standard curriculums as well as maintaining a very low child to teacher ratio. Their theme? Monarch butterflies!
My son was greeted by Mrs. Arnold, the school principal. She and her husband do a large amount of the work at the school, along with some very dedicated employees! They have a very challenging job to do and thrive on it! The cost for such individualized care is difficult for many of the families of students attending there, and so I thought this was the perfect way to help them out a little bit!
Their school office has beautiful butterfly decorations everywhere! They have beautiful dichroic glass butterflies for sale designed by Designs by Ja9 which also help to benefit the school.
Meet Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, the love and sweat behind this fantastic school! I was very eager to help them out through this #BagitForward campaign! There are children all over America, and all over the world that cannot afford even the smallest of school supplies and by joining this campaign we can help a few students have a better start to the school year!
It’s so easy to take $.40 glue for granted- it really is! I welcomed the opportunity to teach my son about community service, and helping out other children who are not as fortunate as he is. Not only was it a great learning lesson for our family, but it helped someone else out too!
What an amazing opportunity and such a great cause! That's so wonderful that you were able to help others while showing your son how good it feels to do so. You really put together some fantastic bags!
Wow you did a fantastic job! I love getting kids involved in helping others!
Wow! This is the first I've heard of this campaign. First off, this post is breathtaking. Visually stunning with your usage and layout of pics.
Secondly, wow those were some jam packed backpacks! I know those teachers must have been so happy!
Awesome!
What a cool campaign and I love those prices! I need to get to shopping! Thanks for sharing this!
I love this! I always like to pick up extra school supplies to give back to those in my community — and for Operation Christmas Child boxes!
What a great campaign! Great job stuffing those backpacks you are going to make some children very happy. God Bless!
Awesome post and love the photos, those prices really grab my attention, haha!
You're an awesome woman for doing this and it's great that you're bringing so much attention to those who can't always afford the basics. Sometimes it's so easy to take things for granted and forget how blessed we really are.
You make me want to go fill up some backpacks myself!
This is such a great cause! The backpacks and products look great!!
-Jennifer's Deals
Love, love, love this!
We're still in preschool here, so school supplies aren't totally necessary for us yet… which means more $$ for one more backpack for someone else!
I'm excited to have my son help me put together some backpacks and help brighten another kid's day!
Oh wow…what a wonderful way to help children in need! This was a wonderful way to help out…good for you! And, thanks for sharing this program with us. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! The more and more I read your posts the more I miss teaching…keep up the great work…
This is SO amazing! What a wonderful cause! I love all of the pictures, I want to do this myself!
Amazing… I had the opportunity do pull gifts for our Christmas Angel program here in AZ! The feeling of giving back is so important to having a balanced life! So glad you go the opportunity to do this!
Empowering Little Learners!
Yay! We do this every year also – and I get my kids involved also – helps them understand that not everyone can show up to school with all the supplies on the list! Right now we're hitting as many of the cheap-school-supply sales as we can, and hopefully some uniform sales also, and we're going to be donating a ton of stuff to our kids' elementary school for kids who can't afford supplies. And don't forget that Staples, Office Depot and Office Max increase the purchase limit on sale items for teachers! Also I found it's a good idea to ask in other stores – the other day I told the Walgreens manager I was a teacher and he basically said I could ignore the 5-item-limit on the really cheap sale items! My son and I were thrilled!
What a great opportunity to give back and teach your son about giving to those less fortunate. I think you did a great job picking things out and I'm sure those backpacks will be much appreciated. 🙂
What a great post! I remember how excited I used to be every year when my mom would take us school shopping, and this post brought back a lot of memories. 🙂
I think the Bag It Forward campaign is such a great thing to do. You made up some really nice backpacks, and that school was the PERFECT place to donate them to for sure!
What an amazing school & amazing people who run it! I'm sure they so appreciate your generous contribution. Awesome job!
I love this program! They didn't have backpacks by the supplies at our store or I would have grabbed those too!
Great way to get involved! Thanks for sharing your story. 🙂
Great job! I love this program, too. Even though we homeschool, our school district desperately needs these things.
-Catherine