Make a Difference... With the correct school supplies, children are more apt to go to school ready to learn. While shopping, collect such things as markers, pencils, pens, glue, calculators, socks, underwear, backpacks, and tissue. Your family can donate just a few items, or organize a donation drive in your church, work, or with friends. Donate the supplies to a local agency or to Iraqi schools through Operation Iraqi Children, a Kansas City- based nonprofit that provides new school supplies to Iraqi children.

Photo: Courtesy Operation Iraqi Children

UNESCO stands for the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization. Here’s what they say:

1. Life expectancy rises by as much as 2 years for every 1 percent increase in literacy.

2. Education enhances the ability of households to manage health problems, improve nutrition and childcare, and plan for the future.

3. Educated women marry later, have fewer children and receive better prenatal care.

4. Children of mothers who have been to school are healthier, better nourished, and more likely to attend and succeed in school than children of mothers who have never gone to school.

It all started in March 2005, when 15-year-old Becky Cook of Cloquet, Minnesota noticed an article in Reader’s Digest appealing for donations from Operation Iraqi Children, a Kansas City-based nonprofit that helps Americans send school-supply kits to Iraqi children.

Cook wasn’t looking for a project to put on her college resume or a way to impress her parents. She was just struck by the plea and wanted to help. She contacted church groups and talked to her assistant principal about what the school district could do. She entered a small advertisement in the local paper-- and became the subject of an entire article. People responded by sending money for the supplies, and moral support for her hard work.

However, Cook realized that to be truly successful she had to raise student interest and reach more people who might contribute. Her solution: create a video. It shows her searching her house for the needed school supplies and, when she finds them (usually under a spotlight-stealing dog), explaining the necessity of each.

Next she received donated bags and boxes from the local Super One grocery, and sent some to every school that agreed to participate. She noted on each bag which school supply (ruler, composition book, paper) a class was assigned to give. A pizza party was the reward for the class contributing the most at each school.

With this effort, plus a speech she gave at her church, the donations poured in. Soon Cook had collected over 2,000 items, enough to create 200 kits. She enlisted the help of her parents, Mary and Jim Cook, to buy zip-lock bags and shuttle her around town. Then, with the help of friends and family, Becky put together the 200 kits and layered them in donated boxes. The Cloquet Mail Station offered a deal on shipping, and off they went to Operation Iraq Children for ultimate distribution by American soldiers.

Cook went into this task with no expectations for how well she could do, but just a hope that she could help someone. At first she didn’t think the project would require much time-she’d simply collect school supplies and ship them off. But the deeper she got into it, the more she learned how contagious one person’s caring could be. She received thank-you letters from people all over the city, and lived an experience she won’t ever forget.

Photo: Becky Cook Organizing Supplies

Doing Good Together has been awarded a grant from the Michigan-based Ronald and Eva Kinney Family Foundation. This gift makes it possible for us to inspire and help even more families make community service a part of their lives. We are deeply grateful for their generosity and support.

email: mail@doinggoodtogether.org

phone: 612-822-6502

web: http://www.doinggoodtogether.org