We all have stories of teachers who impacted our lives and remain in our hearts, which is where our campaign this year for Teacher Appreciation Week started—with our team recalling our own faves, like Mr. Weaver, the first person who encouraged one of us to pursue theater (and Ms. Greenfield, who gave another gentle permission to give up marching band when it really, REALLY wasn’t working for him).
One of us remembered her first-grade teacher, who played checkers with her and made her feel special whenever her parent couldn’t get away in time to pick her up after school. Another practically wrote an ode to his middle-school history teacher for turning the textbook on its head to help him understand what got written was just one version of what happened.
From memories to here and now
Those personal stories are a treasure, and all of us have them. What few of us have is the experience of making a direct impact within a classroom. But because we know, love, and work with teachers, we’ve heard a lot about the challenges those teachers face—including keeping a classroom well-stocked.
That, we realized, was where our Teacher Appreciation Week efforts could make a real difference. And we wouldn’t be able to make that difference without a lot of help.
Working to clear teacher wish lists
When we put out the call to our clients and colleagues for teacher wish lists, we got a quick response. In just two days, more than 100 teachers had submitted their wish lists, and when we published the full tally of teacher wish lists, it was 194 wish lists long. That’s a lot of hand sanitizer, snacks, and what-not.
Starting the Monday of Teacher Appreciation Week, we posted relentlessly and tagged friends, colleagues, clients, and competitors to encourage donations. And you came through!
We can’t know the full extent of giving, but we were able to watch some of our featured lists get cleared with gift after gift. We were able to track at least $10,000 in purchases, and we’ve received dozens of grateful notes from teachers and their students.
Thanks to all who took part
Thank you, thank you to everyone who made a difference for so many teachers and students. It’s a big deal, and we’re so glad to have your help. So are Ms. Klycek, Ms. Christensen, Ms. Amos . . .
And if you’re feeling left out, you can still find the teacher wish lists right here.
