Shopping spree

More than 50 recent Wright State University graduates who secured teaching positions at area schools received free classroom supplies at a special event at Crayons to Classrooms on July 30.

The new teachers collected up to $2,000 in free supplies to decorate and stock their new classrooms.

Cassidy Hale, who graduated from Wright State this spring, landed a teaching position at Fairborn Primary School. Hale, who filled two shopping carts with supplies, said the timing of the event could not have been better.

“I didn’t have a job over the summer and it’s hard to afford everything,” said Hale. “I have more than I ever could’ve imagined.”

Crayons to Classrooms is a free school supply store for teachers from underfunded pre-K-12 schools in the Miami Valley.

Malena Ball, the marketing coordinator for Crayons to Classrooms, said the program introduces the first-year teachers to Crayons to Classrooms’ services while also building relationships.

“A good chunk of them will be going to schools that we serve regularly so they will be able to come again and shop in the fall and the spring,” said Ball.

About a dozen Wright State faculty assisted the recent graduates with shopping and loading items into their vehicles.

“It’s a great partnership,” said Makenna Hartley, who graduated from Wright State in April and will begin teaching first graders at Carlisle Elementary School this fall. “We heard about the program in February, but I had no idea it would be this big.”