2017 School Supplies Donation
When thinking of community service, some people think; what organization can I call and assist with, either with money or donating goods. We all can see some obvious signs of needs for charity when driving around our neighborhoods and communities. Even when we drive by schools we can see children running around having a good time, laughing and talking with their friends, but what we rarely see is the need the teachers have INSIDE their classrooms.
Teachers have gone to school for years and years to learn their very special craft-teaching our children. Guiding our beloved little darlings into their futures. What an amazing gift it is, to be a teacher. We put our trust in teachers every day when we drop our children off at school. How many times do we stop and think about the needs of the teachers, or take into account the extra mile they go every year because they love their job. To most teachers they do not have a job, they have a calling in life to work with young people and help them become amazing members of society. Rarely do we hear the stories of the hardship the teachers take upon themselves to provide basic school supplies for our children to learn with every day.
For the last two years Agape Salon has collected school supplies for a local organization to assist with children going back to school. We invite our amazing guests to participate and drop off any school supplies they would like to donate. This year we had a very special situation arise. One of our stylists was talking to a teacher; he happened to tell her of his challenges with his classroom. The school system only has so much money to provide the children in his classroom, the rest of the basic supplies, he provides out of pocket. His classroom is large and he does have another teacher that shares responsibilities with him for the classroom. They both will shop and provide the missing items from their own wallets. When Angelica Lopez, one of our stylists share this story with the team, we all knew we needed to help these teachers.
He was not asking for help, we offered to help. We sent an email blast to all of our guests and the donations were quickly dropped off at the salon. Backpacks, paper, crayons, colored pencils, paint supplies. It was so heartwarming to see the outpouring of help not only from our guests but also from our team. Each and every team member took the time to shop for this class room.
One Saturday a couple weeks after the supplies were delivered, a young man walked in the door. We did not at first recognize him; he was also carrying a large envelope. He introduced himself and said he had something for the salon. He proceeded to open his large envelope and pulled out a stack of papers. The children had drawn pictures and notes to thank the salon for the school supplies. It was the most precious thing we had all seen. The children drew pictures of themselves saying thank you to all of us. Many of us at Agape Salon are parents, those who are not parents, have nieces and nephews, younger siblings or children that are very important in our lives.
As we poured over the lovely pictures the children drew we all ended up in tears. We did not think twice about the items we donated. It was not much to us to buy a few items and give them to these teachers to use, in fact we never thought twice about the supplies. We love giving back to the community especially to children. When the pictures were delivered to the salon, and we heard the heart touching thank you from the teacher, our hearts melted. To see a man so dedicated to teaching children, hearing how much he loves his chosen profession; we all knew we chose the right area to put our charitable donations.
