Yesterday the campaign to prepare kids for school hit off with Mayor Mike Rawlings dancing at Fair Park for the Mayor’s Back to School program. While Mike definitely should not try out for Dancing With The Stars, he was welcome entertainment for the thousands who stood in line for vaccinations, haircuts, health care examinations and school supplies.
But that was just a smidgen of the assistance that is required to get kids prepared for the 2012-2013 school year. Other organizations are in high gear to help kids.The most gratifying programs are the ones that partner up nonprofits with the business sector.
Need an example?
Well, let’s try Community Partners of Dallas. Through the month of August, the group is collecting “new school supplies for abused and neglected children served by Child Protective Services,” with the hope to provide for 1,800 kids. Once again home-grown Container Store is coming through.
“The Back to School Drive is one of the most important activities we do all year, ensuring that more than 1800 children are ready to start school with brand new supplies, backpacks and uniforms,” said Paige McDaniel, President and CEO, Community Partners of Dallas. “Each year the support we receive from the community continues to grow, and we are so grateful for their commitment to improve the school year for abused and neglected children in Dallas County.”
Tolleson Wealth Management
One company that has turned into a competition is Tolleson Wealth Management. Involved with the program since 2008, they’re set a mighty big goal for 2012 — 12,000 units of items.
How do they plan to accomplish this feat? Good old-fashioned competition.
According to Tolleson Director of Human Resources and Communications Katie Botik, “Each quarter as a company, we recognize one of our core values. For this we wanted to incorporate the value of teamwork. We put all of our employees into groups of people they may not work with on a typical workday. The prize was simply a lunch away from the office with their team at a restaurant of their choice, but it was unbelievable the response, and how hard each team worked to collect the most supplies.”
Leave it to the Tolleson crew to strategize, plot and execute POA. Katie told how some teams “began cutting coupons to use the discount to buy even more supplies.” Another team “tried to trick the competition by only turning in a small amount of supplies at the weekly check-ins, but actually was hiding the bulk of their collection. At the end of the drive, the completed the largest community service initiative the company had ever participated in.”
Instead of sitting around griping about the heat and the need for DEET, why not think of ways to collect such things as three-ring binders, colored pencil, spiral notebooks, glue, markers, notebook paper, backpacks, construction paper, rulers, folders, scissors and watercolor sets. You can drop them off at any area Container Store during the month of August.
And, of course, $$ is always welcomed. Just send it and/or supplies to Community Partners of Dallas’ Central Location in the Wilson Historic District.
Ah, come on. Surely, you can skip a latte to let a munchkin have some colored pencils or some construction paper. That latte is will be history in a matter of minutes. The pencils and paper will be used for a longtime.
