#1 LP PENCIL Box

So today was my first day volunteering or doing something to help others with this blog in mind.  If you didn't read the introduction, I am planning on doing thirty good deeds or volunteer things by my thirtieth birthday which is in November.  I figured that there is no better way to show my appreciation for each year of my life than by helping others.  For my first volunteer service, I helped out at LP PENCIL Box.

 Here is a little bit about LP PENCIL Box from the flyer that the wonderful woman in charge, Kim Washington gave me:

"LP PENCIL Box is a free school supply store for educators, providing learning materials for economically disadvantaged students in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools.  LPPB is supported in part by the LP Foundation, the charitable arm of LP Building Products, and is largely dependent on donations from businesses and individuals in the Nashville community.  With Nashville's support, over $2.7 million in school supplies have reached students in the program's inception in 2005."

How It Works

The teachers have already signed up before they get there so our job was to check them in by finding their name on a list and checking their school badge for confirmation of identity.  We then would explain the system to them if they had not shopped with LP PENCIL Box before.  Each teacher was given a clip board with a piece of paper listing all of the items in the store and the limit for each item. The teacher then picks out what they want while marking it on the clip board along with how many of each item.  The store is divided up into two rooms (blue and green) and the maximum items from each room that a teacher can take is 40.  Of course, there are limits to each individual item.  When they were through shopping, they brought everything up to the front where we checked off each item for inventory reasons and they were sent on their way to make good use of their haul for the day. :)
Now, being a teacher myself, I can't tell you how appreciative I am that a program like this exists.  There have been numerous times that I bought school supplies out of my own, poor-teacher-salary makin' pocket because I always seemed to need more stuff and didn't feel right about getting them supplied to me from the school that I knew was also struggling with having enough school supplies. Even though I'm taking time off from teaching to focus on motherhood, it warms my heart to know that there are people who recognize the hard work that teachers put forth and have found a way to bless them.

So now, about my day.  :)

My shift was from 9 am until 12:30 pm at the McCann Alternative Center in West Nashville.  It was a nice, rainy morning so I wasn't sure if too many people would show up, teachers or volunteers.  I was immediately welcomed with friendly smiles that looked to really appreciate having a new volunteer face.  I made a name tag for myself and explored the store.  It was so awesome to see the baskets full of different items that I knew had been donated by charitable people and companies.  There were six of us working the morning shift and we took turns checking teachers in, checking teachers out, bagging items, helping teacher load things into their cars, and restocking the shelves.  It was fun to do the different jobs throughout the morning.

It was a good group of people and the time really flew by.  I am so thankful to have had that opportunity and thankful that Kim was okay with me writing about it in my blog.  If this type of volunteer service interests you and you live in the Nashville area, go to www.pencilfoundation.org to learn more and sign up to volunteer today!  You will enjoy the experience of helping others, I promise!