SARASOTA – There’s no doubt the upcoming school year will be a challenge for everyone. And now more than ever teachers need a helping hand stocking their classrooms with enough school supplies to last the school year.
“I never in a million years thought that strangers who don’t know me would be so quick to support me and help me out,” said Patricia Jillezeau.
What started as a simple idea for Jillezeau, special needs teacher, quickly took off. As an educator she knows that way too often teachers payout of pocket for the materials students need. So she decided to create the Facebook Group Adopt a Sarasota County Teachers.
“I really wanted to make a page where everybody can be nice and positive to each other and help each other out,” said Jillezeau.
The group quickly reached more than 4,000 members. Teachers upload a list of the supplies they need, anyone can symbolically adopt a teacher by purchasing all or partially that teachers list. Ensuring all students will have a safe and secure learning environment.
“What this group has done is – it’s incredible to see the community support from everyone around,” said Joshua Grant.
Grant, Venice High School 2020 Teacher of the Year, says teachers are facing a challenge like never before, and knowing you can count on your community at a time of need goes long way.
“We always buy a couple things of hand sanitizer, a couple things of wipes, cleaning materials,” said Grant. “That extra help that community members have been able to give us. It’s just been so great.”
And the gifts keep on coming. Hundreds are seeing their Wish-list’s being bought out completely. Jillezeau says she’s overwhelmed with the amount support, teachers like herself, have received gives her hope we will make it on the other side together.
“We have all this safety stuff that we need to put in place in our classroom too and it gets costly. And in top of it being costly it’s hard to find all the materials now,” said Jillezeau. “So it’s really good and network and be able to reach out to other teachers and community members.”
Jillezeau says she plans to keep the Facebook Page up after the start of the school year to return the favor and help back that community that helped them during their time of need.
To find your teacher to adopt and help donate items from their wish list you can visit Adopt a Sarasota County Teacher Facebook page. Their you can find the hundreds of teachers who have posted their wish list and have not completed in getting all items.
Sarasota County School students return to the classroom Monday August 31st.