Do you enjoy back-to-school shopping? Some folks do – the allure of a new notebook (and the inherent promise of organization that it brings) and the unmistakable smell of crayons welcome in a new school year. Some moms even love school supplies.
After several weeks of picking out the best school supplies (most supplies in my boys’ favorite colors – either blue or orange) and shopping sales, I am finished with back-to-school shopping.
To get the job done, today I finally gave in and visited my least favorite big box store for the last few items. I was grumpy. Ironically, one of the reasons I detest this store is because everyone in the store seems grumpy. Grumpiness from being in a store I did not want to be in and then there is the LIST. In addition to the typical tissues-soap-crayons supply list, there were markers, pencils and 10 jumbo glue sticks required for one son and 12 jumbo glue sticks for my other son. Yes, that is right folks, lots of jumbo glue sticks, which over the last month in RVA have ranged in cost from $1.12 to $2.29 each. Ouch.
As I was shopping, I noticed several women and a man with many boxes of supplies in their cart. I asked them for help on a particular item and they smiled and told me that they did not work in the store; they were just buying a lot of stuff. I was in the school supply section for quite some time, averting the crowded aisles to get the most desirable stuff (you know – orange and blue scissors, orange and blue notebooks, orange and blue pencil cases).
This team that I had mistaken for store staff worked very efficiently. One woman had a notebook with a calculator and was calculating how many pencil packs they could get for a certain price. “Dixon pencils, vs. Ticonderoga vs. no name pencils.” She even factored the cost differential between brands that sold pencils by the dozen, vs. a 10-pack. The other woman was in the aisle counting out cases, and the man was hoisting them into their cart. When I left, they had stuffed 2 1/2 carts with basic supplies. It turns out they were shopping for a community organization that provides school supplies for families who cannot afford it.
I felt humbled that this experience reminded me there are families who cannot afford the basics of notebooks and pencils and guilty that I whined over not being able to find an orange notebook or the need for so many jumbo glue sticks. Undoubtedly, when considering Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, school supplies are low priority when you are focused with putting food on the table.
So when you are back-to-school shopping please consider donating some school supplies for kids who cannot afford them. First Capital Bank has sponsored the Stuff the Bus program for students in need at Wal-Mart and Staples and Office Max also have back-to-school supply drives. Please make a difference for kids and their education.
