Crayons to Calculators helps local students prepare for learning in the classroom or at a distance

Since 2005, the nonprofit Crayons to Calculators (C2C) program has had a simple mission: to provide local students with the supplies they need to start the school year successfully. Created by a partnership between the Education Foundation for St. Vrain Valley and Boulder Valley's Impact on Education, each summer C2C musters a small army of community volunteers to fill more than 11,000 backpacks with donated pencils, notebooks, and other school essentials, which are then distributed to families in need. Needless to say, fulfilling that mission in the pandemic-stricken world of 2020 has been challenging, but for C2C organizers and sponsors, taking a year off was not an option.

"In May, I reached out to all St. Vrain Valley Schools, including charter schools, and I said, 'How many students will benefit from this program that you project right now?'," said Michelle Phelan, community liaison for EFSVV. "And that number came back at a little over 5,900, which is a 10% increase from last year, and an increase from the start of the quarantine in March. At the foundation, one of the things that we make sure that we do-we don't guess the numbers. We don't say, 'Here's what we think we can do,' we ask for the need."

While the decision to proceed with the program in 2020 was easy, Phelan said that the decision about how to proceed was not. Between COVID-19 gathering restrictions and sanitation requirements, relying on C2C's well-established donation and volunteer model to furnish a significant share of the labor and supplies was out of the question.

"We knew that bringing in 150 volunteers to two different sites would not be prudent. We also knew that we would not be able to reach out to our community partners, who we give boxes to do supply drives with. We work with businesses that allow the public to go in, and we also work with businesses, like Seagate, who do an internal supply drive. We knew that their workforce wasn't there in full, so I wouldn't get what I would need."

In early June, C2C announced that it planned to purchase pre-assembled supply kits from a wholesaler, and started approaching sponsors and other community partners for monetary support to help fund the bulk purchase. The kits will be scaled to grade level, and contain appropriate supplies for learning in either a classroom or remote setting. Among the first on board was Western Disposal Services, the program's title sponsor for the past dozen years. According to Community Relations Manager Kathleen Carroll, Western Disposal's support for the C2C program remained a priority, even though the pandemic has impacted their bottom line.

"There was no question about whether we were going to do it," Carroll said. "Crayons to Calculators is a terrific program, it's an effective program, and it helps our community. We've been in this community for 50 years, and we work only in this community, and having the local connection and knowing that we're helping our neighbors is really important to us."

C2C also received support from Platinum Sponsor Google, which provided a matching donation of $10,000. Other sponsors include Sunflower Bank, Guardian Mortgage, First National Bank of Omaha, Premier Members Credit Union, Seagate, Xilinx, Elevations Credit Union, Ottercares, and Sticker Giant.

"Our sponsors really came through for us," Phelan said. "More than 30 percent of our supplies usually come from community drives, so those are things we've never had to purchase."

The kits will be delivered in late July to Sunset Middle School, which has served as C2Cs central "stuffing" hub for the past three years. Principal Anthony Barela has been a strong supporter of the C2C program and was eager to support the 2020 effort, though it will be a little lonelier than in years past.

"Although they've had to pivot, Crayons to Calculators hasn't missed a step, which is awesome," Barela said. "Crayons to Calculators does such an amazing job making sure our kids have what they need, and I'm so thankful. It's always a confidence builder for students, and we always want to make sure we can provide as much as we can, because it strengthens that bond and connection."

Phelan expects the kits to be delivered to schools throughout the district in August. A total of 5,928 sets will be distributed-316 to prekindergarten students, 587 to Kindergarten, 919 to 1st/2nd grade, 602 to 3rd grade, 807 to 4th/5th grade, and 2,697 to middle and high school students. Administrators will then hand out the supplies to individual students, following prevailing health guidelines.

Though kits are on the way, Crayons to Calculators is still in need of funding for the coming school year. For more information about the program or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit crayonstocalculators.org.