CCRx's 4th Swap Circle for Teachers was a great success -- demonstrating yet again the abundance we have and how we can fulfill the needs of our teachers and their students. 300 Chicago teachers braved snow and cold after school on Friday and all day on Saturday, January 25-26 to find a fantastic array of supplies, equipment and materials for their classrooms...
About 100 individuals and companies made donations for this Swap. Highlights included Blitsy and A.C. Moore's donation of hundreds of rolls of decorative Washi Tape. Scholastic and CPS donated hundreds of brand new books. Artists and Craftsman Supply and Dick Blick donated brand new art supplies. The Furniture Shop donated yards and yards of fabric. The Chicago Community Trust donated hundreds of books of beautiful photos of Chicago. The Poetry Foundation gave artist-designed posters. The Joffrey Ballet donated leotards and costumes. Glenwood South High School donated an ensemble's worth of choir gowns. And the list goes on... printers, sewing machines, binding machines, computers, photo enlargers and more.
We were thrilled to get some great media coverage from Erin Ivory of WGN-TV and Jamie Nesbitt Golden of Block Club Chicago.
Our hosts and helpers for the swap were the good people at Envision Unlimited's Frick Center in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. Envision assists adults with special needs, and some of these adults were our best helpers -- Peter who sorted binders and pens. Dana sorted markers. Nina cleaned bins. Luke arranged the science items. Curtis Dana and Lucas helped sort pens. And there were many others who pitched in as well. All of them worked with our wonderful volunteers, some of whom are pictured below:
The Chicago Public Schools sent a tremendous donation of brand new Scholastic Books to us, and we were happy to distribute hundreds of titles like these:
Teachers lined up to check out, and showed off some of their treasures -- printers, sewing machines, computers, binding machines, paper, binders, pens and markers. And everyone got a ream of paper courtesy of the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation!
Heartfelt thanks to all our donors, teachers and volunteers.
Stay tuned for our next Swap event!