As part of its annual #AdvocatesForEducation holiday initiative, Christian & Small recently collaborated with Teach For America-Alabama on a school supply drive initiative that culminated in a day-of-service volunteer event.
During the month of June, the firm collected school supplies and monetary donations that will benefit the students in Teach For America-Alabama’s first- and second-year corps members’ classrooms, ensuring that each child in these classrooms is equipped with the resources to help them have a successful school year.
“Working with Teach For America-Alabama, we identified the school supplies that will help teachers and students the most,” Christian & Small Managing Partner Deborah Alley Smith said. “As we approach the back-to-school season, these donations will ensure each child is equipped with appropriate supplies, which include notebooks, folders, highlighters, index cards, notebook paper, pencils and so much more. We also collected supplies that will benefit the classroom as a whole – such as dry erase markers and erasers, staplers, and copy paper.”
The initiative resulted in a day-of-service on Thursday, July 14, when attorneys and staff from Christian & Small joined Teach For America-Alabama staff and corps members to assemble the donations into kits for the corps members’ classrooms. The combined total of donations will provide supplies for each Teach For America-Alabama classroom – a total of 46 kits.
“This was our opportunity to show how much we appreciate these corps members for choosing to come to Alabama and working to give our kids the opportunity to attain an excellent education,” Smith said. “Their commitment will help make the future brighter for many of Alabama’s children; they’ll have the opportunity to change lives. Education in Alabama faces many significant challenges, but they are not insurmountable. Each of these corps members has the opportunity to be a catalyst for positive change, and their contributions will make an incalculable difference in our students’ lives.”
This year’s #AdvocatesForEducation school supply initiative is an outgrowth of the firm’s annual Nonstop Advocates community engagement commitment, which is focused on education.
“Christian & Small is a founding partner of Teach For America – Alabama, and they were instrumental in bringing us to Alabama in 2010,” Teach For America-Alabama Executive Director Khadijah Abdullah said. “Teachers often dig deep into their own pockets at the beginning of the school year to set up their classrooms and often spend hundreds of dollars on school supplies to support their students. The school supply drive sponsored by Christian & Small is jumpstarting our new teachers’ classroom toolboxes and is deeply appreciated. We are humbled by Christian & Small’s support of our teachers and commitment to our students across the state of Alabama.”
For more information on Teach For America-Alabama, please visit https://alabama.teachforamerica.org/.