Notes of thanks from families receiving supplies

Below is a note we recently received now that the supplies are being distributed.  Thank you for all your efforts!

• Thank you so very much for all the school supplies that we just picked up today!  Particularly this year with the high inflation this help was greatly needed and appreciated! Your hard work to help the people in the community and make a difference for so many of us does not go unnoticed!  Much Appreciated!

Thanks to our volunteers!

Many thanks to the rock star School Supply Drive committee that has been hard at work organizing this important event.

Jen Bracco
Paula Cardenas
Kim Jamme
Michele Krohn
Amanda Miller
Colleen Mullin
Kate Peyton
Mary Frances Szpila
Jean Allen
Tina Whitlow
Chris Ivory – T&E Kids Care Club

Thanks to our volunteers and donors!

Many thanks to the rock star School Supply Drive committee that has been hard at work organizing this important event.

Jen Bracco
Jean Allen
Paula Cardenas
Pam Goggin
Mary Frances Szpila
Jean Purinton
Kate Peyton
Kim Jamme

Huge thanks also to those businesses and organizations that lent a hand with this event:

• FLITE – backpacks
• Trinity Presbyterian Church – gift cards
• TE Moms – gift cards
• Philadelphia Foundation – support for supplies or gift cards
• The Goddard School – Wayne, gift cards
• St. Matthews United Methodist Church – gift cards
• Wegmans, Malvern – gift cards

2019 SPECIAL THANKS FOR ANOTHER GREAT SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE!  

Many many thanks to those who lent a hand with this year’s event – whether it was by sponsoring a student, driving supplies from a drop off location to the sorting location, sorting supplies, donating food for the volunteers, getting gift cards, etc etc etc.  SPECIAL THANKS to the wonderful committee that pulled together all the details of this event:  Eileen Ryle, Mary Frances Szpila, Jen Bracco, Paula Cardenas, Rita Gosnear, Laura Pratt, and Jean Purinton.  You are our fearless leaders for sure.  A shout out to the groups, organizations, and businesses who lent a hand to help with this year’s drive:

• Play It Again Sports and the Tredyffrin Library – our two drop off locations
• The Foundation for Learning in T/E (FLITE) – for providing a grant to cover the good quality back packs needed for this year’s drive.
• Chester County Community Foundation/REMAX Main Line Charitable Charitable Foundation – gift card support
• USLI Care 2 Fund – gift card support
• Beaumont Elementary school – $250 cash for gift cards
• Wegmans Malvern – $250 gift cards
• Conestoga High School  – for once again hosting our sorting day in July
• The TESD counselors – for helping to determine who should receive the supplies
• The TESD custodial staff – for delivering the supplies to the various schools
• The district secretaries and other staff who help us distribute the supplies this August.

It’s a true team effort!  And what a team!

SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE 2019 PHOTOS  Looks like fun!

School Supply Drive 2018 – Thanks to all!

Once again our community has stepped up and helped out some local kids so when September comes the kids will be ready for school! Many many thanks to all who sent in donations – big or small they all add up!  Many thanks also to everyone who donated time to help transfer the supplies to the school, sort the supplies, count the gift cards, communicate with the families to line up who needs what, coordinate with our drop-off locations, etc.  It’s another team effort for sure!  See below for some fun pictures from sorting day, 2018.  Any last minute questions – send a note to us at schoolsupplies@tecare.org.

We recognize that ALL donations of supplies, gift cards, cash, and time are important, but we want to send a special shout out to the following groups or businesses who lend an extra hand to the event:

RE/MAX Main Line Charitable Foundation – for a donation of gift cards
Wegmans (Malvern) – for a donation of funds to help with purchases
Paoli Village Shoppes – for sponsoring items from our list
The CARE2 Fund at USLI – for a donation of funds to help with purchases
FLITE – for a wonderful grant to help cover the cost of the new back packs we hand out
Play It Again Sports – for being a drop-off location
The Tredyffrin Library – for being a drop-off location
Conestoga High School – for hosting “sorting day”
TESD custodians – for transferring all the supplies to the various schools for distribution

AND a HUGE thanks to the amazing School Supply Drive 2018 Committee:

Eileen Ryle …. Rita Gosnear …. Mary Francis Szpila …. Jean Purinton …. Gretchen Guttman …. Bonnie Motel …. Jen Bracco
Laura Pratt …. Paula Cardenas …. Julia Fisher ….Nancy Higgins

We couldn’t have done it without all of you!

FUN PHOTOS FROM SORTING DAY 2018

The 2017 School Supply Drive is over

What a great event again this year!  Over 200 students received support from this amazing community!  Every student was supported with supplies, and each child was able to receive an average of $50 in gift cards to help with other expenses to start the year.  We are humbled to see the support of so many in helping these local kids!  THANKS!!!

We appreciate the many folks who donated supplies, gift cards, or cash to the drive. But there were many who also donated TIME!  Some drove supplies from the drop off locations to a committee member’s house.  Some sorted supplies at Conestoga.  Some went shopping for missing items.  Some gathered food for the volunteers on sorting day.  The list goes on and on.  We thank you ALL!  Very special thanks to the committee who put this all together:

Rita Gosnear – Eileen Ryle – Bonnie Motel – Mary Francis Szpila – Sarah Culbert – Gretchen Guttman – Jean Purinton – Julia Fisher – Laura Pratt

If you need a tax donation form, you can download it here. 

Thanks For Your Support!

School Supply Drive 2016 – The Amazing Results

The 2016 School Supply Drive is history. With a record number of students (over 240) from local families requesting our help getting school supplies, we admit to being a little worried.  Would we finally meet our match?  We should have known that once again this community would come through!!   We want to thank many people in this effort – that partial list is below.  Also below are some fun pix taken on sorting day – you can see that we had an army of volunteers but that meant that we finished quickly!  Once again – thanks to all those who helped make this event possible!

• Thanks to all those who came to sorting day, including lots of wonderful TESD students!  There were over 100 people helping with this amazing event!
• Thanks to Nancy/Tom Higgins, Rita/Tim Gosnear, Play It Again Sports (Berwyn), and the Tredyffrin Library (Wayne) for being such fantastic drop off locations.
• Thanks to Conestoga High School for once again allowing us to take over the school on sorting day!
• Thanks to ALL in the community who helped with donations of supplies, gift cards and cash.

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2015  – The Results

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2014  – The Results

Another successful School Supply Drive is now behind us!  The backpacks are all loaded and will be distributed in August to the families in our community needing this support.  Over 210 children will be receiving this assistance – close to 30 more than last year.  It’s clear that the economic hard times are not yet over!  Once again we can’t give enough thanks to the community for their incredible support throughout the drive.

Over $8000 in gift cards were received, and enough cash donations were submitted that we were able to buy the extra items needed for some of the additional students to our lists.  It was an extremely successful drive.  We have already received one email from a mom saying, Thank you all so much this is a God sent and such a weight off my shoulder. I thank you all and I thank God for all who supported this ministry. THANK YOU.  Once again – we can only say thank YOU, but please know that we mean so much more!

Besides the community members and businesses that helped with donations, we extend special recognition to the chairs and key contributors to the event.   Julia Fisher, Eileen Ryle, Rita Gosnear, Charu Ghandi, Barbara McConnell, and Amy Ard worked VERY hard to make this event seem so seemless to the outsiders!

The T/E School District really helped a ton in this drive as well!  Special thanks also to the Conestoga High School administration for offering the cafeteria to us on sorting day, to the custodians who helped transfer the finished bags to the various schools, to the counselors who helped us develop our lists of who needed the help, and to the secretaries who help pass out the bags to the families.

Below is the list of those groups or businesses that also made special contributions to our event.  Also below are pictures from the event.  You can see that this is truly a team effort

FLITE – The Foundation for Learning in T/E – FLITE approved a grant to cover the cost of many of the backpacks and flash drives needed for this year’s drive

Shire Pharmaceuticals -for donating lots of binders.

USLI Care 2 Fund – for their generous donation.

Johnson Matthey -for their continued support and donations.

Tredyffrin Library and Play It Again Sports (Berwyn) – for being drop off locations – they were great partners in this effort.

Mom’s Club of T/E – for a new partnership in donations

Panera Bread – for donating bagels and goodies for the sorters on the big sorting day

Plato’s Closet – for offering shirts to some of the older boys receiving supplies

The Center on Central – for sponsoring a student

RE/MAX Main Line Charitable Foundation – for their continued support of gift cards for our drive

Wegmans King of Prussia – for their continued support of gift cards for our drive

McAndrews Law Firm – for making a donation to the drive

Polek Schwartz Architects – for making a donation to the drive

Girl Scout Troop #4425 – for donating supplies to the drive

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2013  – The Results

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2012  – The Results

ALL FINISHED!   AND WHAT A TREMENDOUS RESULT!
Even though the drive was shortened by a full week, and we had 20+ more students than last year (over 190!)  – we still met our goal!  All students were sponsored and bulk items offered.  We received many gift cards and general donations as well, to help give families some extra support. THANKS TO ALL!!!!!!!

Special thanks for the School Supply Drive

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2011  – The Results

Aug 3, 2011 – We have finished sorting all the donations, the bags are loaded with supplies and gift cards, and we’re starting to get them handed out to the local kids.  We can promise you that these supplies are VERY MUCH appreciated by those receiving them.  What a huge help it is to know that the kids can start the year off with all the needed supplies, and in many cases, a new shirt or pair of jeans as well.  Good attitudes are the start of successful school days.

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2010  – The Results

The T&E Care School Supply Drive 2009 – The Results

We are done sorting through all the donations, dividing things up in the appropriate bags, and delivering the bags to the schools.  We say this often and it sounds so commonplace – but this really is one fantastic place to live.  The generosity of this community is beyond incredible.  We easily had the donations to fill (in many cases over-fill!) the required 110 bookbags, plus we did one extra bag for each school – just to have ready to go.  We have told the schools that we have enough extra supplies to make a few more bags when the calls come in (and we expect to get them).  Because of your generosity – we had over $1800 in gift cards so we were also able to include a card for clothing in many of the bags.  These kids should have a great start to the school year … the rest is up to them!

We can’t begin to thank everyone publicly who helped with this drive – the list would be too long.  But to mention a few…..

•  Thanks to all those who donated – whether it was sponsoring a student, buying some pencils, or sending in a check or gift card – it all helped and we obviously couldn’t have done it without you!!!!
  
• We want to give a special shout-out to Johnson Matthey – which as a local company agreed to sponsor 11 students for this drive.  They ended up taking in enough donations to fill 27 bags, plus donated $80+ for the general cause.  Thanks to the folks at Johnson Matthey for really stepping up and helping out big time! 
• Special thanks to those people who agreed to be drop-off points.   Having so many options for dropping off supplies makes it so much more convenient for people to donate.
  
• Thanks to those who called families to confirm needs and to those who gave up part (or all!) of their day on Aug 5 to sort supplies (including a dozen high school students!).
• Thanks to the administration at Conestoga for letting us sort the supplies at the school – we filled the cafeteria with tables and tables of supplies – and made ourselves at home for the day.  The custodial support was terrific (those boxes were heavy!) and everyone was wonderful to work with.
  
• And last but not least, special thanks to Margie Winters and Julia Fisher for their expertise in running this drive, and to Barbara McConnell for sharing past knowledge when it counted the most!  You guys were terrific!
  

This was truly a team effort in the truest sense of the word!

* * * * * * *

We have received numerous thank you calls and notes for the help given through the school supply drive.  We just wanted to share one that was recently sent by one of the kids getting the supplies.  Hopefully you’ll understand the impact of your donations!

 Dear T&E Care:
Thank you for the school supplies that you gave us.  Our mom was so happy when we went to pick up the things at the school.  We now realize how blessed we are to have people like you in our lives.  Some kids never even receive half the stuff you gave us.  We are so ready to go to school now because of your generosity.  My little sisters were so excited when they saw that their backpacks were in their favorite colors and almost screamed in excitement when they opened them and saw all the supplies in them. I was amazed at all the items I received.  There were so many supplies they had to put them in a box!  Thank you again for all the things you’ve done for our family!