BY MEGHAN E.W. CORBETT
No matter what school looks like for your child this year, one thing is guaranteed: school supplies will be needed for students as well as teachers. When teachers are in the classroom, we all know how many materials they go through…and how often they are required to buy their own, as opposed to having necessary learning tools supplied. When teachers must work remotely and utilize online tools like YouTube and Zoom, they still need to print worksheets, create visual aids, assemble activities for crafts, and drop off buckets and packets of homework.
For years, this is where Educator Warehouse has come into play to save the day! “Even though our students may be learning differently at the kitchen table, dining room table, bedroom, Mom‘s office, etc., Educator Warehouse is still supplying school supplies for our teachers,” said Educator Warehouse Director Karel Chandler. “These are definitely different times, and we are trying to adjust. We will have private shopping and limited groups, so our numbers will be much lower as to how many people we can have in the warehouse at the same time.”
Educator Warehouse helps all teachers employed in the WS/FCS system who have registered to shop through the WSFCS website (wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/45920). Each quarter, teachers are allowed to shop for classroom supplies using points they have been given, as opposed to their hard-earned dollars. With some teachers spending in excess of $500 of their own money on school supplies for their classrooms, Educator Warehouse strives to close this gap to allow teachers to avoid spending their personal money on paper and pencils.
Most Needed Core Items for Classrooms:
- Pencils
- Pens
- Colored Pencils
- Mechanical Pencils
- Crayons
- Notebook Paper
- Scissors (large and small)
- Rulers
- Sharpies, Highlighters, Markers
- Glue Sticks, Glue Bottles
- Kleenex
- Hand Sanitizer
Top 12 Office Essentials:
- Binder Clips
- Paper Clips
- Rubber Bands
- Staplers, Staples, Staple Removers
- Scotch Tape Dispensers, Scotch Tape
- 1, 2 and 3-Hole Punch
- Post-It Notes
- Desk Organizers
- Handheld Calculators
- Jump Drives, CD Disks
- Sheet Protectors
- Bookends
- Pencil Sharpeners
“Anyone interested in taking advantage of this incredible resource needs to make sure to register! Please make sure to go online and sign up for a time to shop if you are a teacher in Forsyth County,” said Chandler. “We are still taking in lots of donations, and if your company is having a school supply drive, that’s great! If you have decided that you do not want to shop, we are certainly taking monetary donations, and we can do the shopping for our teachers with your money. You can also go to Amazon and have it shipped to us directly at Diggs Latham Elementary, located at 396 Hutton Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101. I look forward to having lots of school supplies coming in this year, and we thank you!”
For more information, including how you can help through volunteering, contact Karel Chandler at kchandler3@msn.com or 336.817.1673. You can also contact Kendra at the Educator Warehouse by calling 336.671.1078 for more information about donations or volunteering. The Educator Warehouse is located at 986 Hutton Street in Winston-Salem. Hours of operation are 3:30-5:30 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and 9-11 am on the first and third Saturdays of each month. To learn more about the warehouse, visit the website at forsythedpartnership.org.
