Crayons to Classrooms’ (C2C) sustainability efforts aim toward keeping supplies, products, and books out of the dump and putting them into the hands of students in need. In celebration of Earth Day, C2C shares about their two programs that support education and the environment in Ohio’s Miami Valley: Reduce and Reuse for Education and Classroom Solutions.
The Teacher Resource Center’s Reduce and Reuse for Education Program repurposes excess retail products, gently used office supplies from local businesses, and supplies from retiring teachers, instead of letting these useful items go to waste. Local organizations including JOANN Fabrics and Phoenix International Publications provide C2C with seasonal items and children’s books to distribute to students in need in under-resourced Miami Valley classrooms. C2C is looking to add other local partners to this program in order to give more inventory to local students, that would otherwise be discarded. Honda generously funds the Reduce and Reuse for Education Program.
The Classroom Solutions Program utilizes the scraps of finished paper products (die cut shapes, paper chains, origami paper, etc.) by running them through the shredder to make confetti, which gets bagged and placed in the store. In past years, C2C volunteers have used leftover pieces of paper and cardboard to create bookmarks and laminated counters.
When local businesses and retailers donate their gently used product when they relocate, downsize, or rebrand, they are giving it a second life in an under-resourced classroom. Partners of these sustainability programs are able to minimize waste and support underfunded schools in the process.
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