I am always amazed at how teachers are willing to pay for classroom materials out of their own pockets.  Even though, I remember that I did the same thing when I was a teacher, I still am surprised at the amount of money that a teacher will spend to bring a classroom up to her expectations.

In a small, economically poor school where I used to volunteer until I got too old to drive there, I watched a teacher at the beginning of the school year, unload a box of materials including little curtains for her classroom.  I estimated that she had about three-hundred dollars’ worth of materials in the box.  When I carefully questioned her about who paid for the supplies, she laughed and pointed at herself.  Her explanation was simple, if she didn’t get the supplies, she needed to make a bright and inviting classroom, no one else was going to do it for her.

Later that same year, a fellow teacher, Becky, who was a petite pretty blonde and delightfully feminine called me and asked if I knew of a school where teachers could use all kinds of materials.  Before I could tell her I certainly did, she said her military-base school had suffered damage from the last hurricane and the government was going to tear it down.  All the classroom materials were to be thrown out.  No one was allowed to remove any of the materials, but after the items were thrown in large dumpsters, anyone who wished to retrieve those items could do so.  Becky then went on to say that she had become a dumpster-diver and was collecting as many of the thrown-out items as she could.

We immediately made a pact; she would collect the items. and I would meet her somewhere and take over the boxes of supplies.  As soon as I could possibly do so, I would transport those items to the school where I volunteered.  As I remember it, we must have met at least six times, and once Becky even met me at my school, where I helped her unload boxes onto a cart and take them into the building.

There was an incredible amount of supplies for the teachers in my little school.  Along with all kinds of children’s books, there were pencils, crayons, markers, bulletin-board decorations, art supplies, board games, and notebook paper.  Each time that I took a box into the school, I would put it in the teachers’ lunch room.  Each time I would find one teacher to tell that there were free supplies in that room for the taking.  Each time, within an hour the word was out, and every bit of the supplies would be gone.

All too soon Becky’s dumpster-diving came to an end. Over the years, I have had many thoughts about our little endeavor.  First what a waste it would have been, if Becky had not become a dumpster-diver and alerted me to the “garbage” that she was retrieving.  Then I thought about the amount of money that together we had saved teachers.  And finally, I thought about the teachers in that little school who constantly caught me in the halls to express their gratitude for the wonder of nearly new materials, that were coming from Becky’s plucky attitude in scarfing them up.  And it was not I who should be thanked, but Becky who realized the value in those materials that a teacher could have for the taking.

Each year, I try to find a teacher or two who need more supplies that he or she can afford.  My husband and I then make some serious donations to them for classroom materials.  It is a charity from the heart since we both were teachers at one time long ago, and we recall that we often bought materials out of our own pockets to have the supplies that we knew were essential to an inviting classroom.  Further, I am always delighted when I look back on the year that my friend and fellow teacher, Becky became a dumpster-diver.