Teachers make plea for school supplies on Reddit
Gift-givers on Reddit encouraged to send supplies to teachers in need
Reddit users are no strangers to gift giving - they even have their own holiday for it - but now redditgifts is turning its attention to a worthy cause: getting much-needed school supplies for teachers.
Reddit kicked off its third annual "redditgifts for the Teachers" this week. Last year's efforts yielded more than $325,000 to help teachers set up their classrooms.
"We started this in 2012 as a way to be able to reach out to teachers, because that's a community that's really in need," redditgifts marketing manager Kaela Gardner told FoxNews.com. "We have been doing it for three years now and we are really pleased with the results and how much the community has rallied to help them."
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Michelle Francis understands the need for school supply donations - as a first-grade teacher in Salt Lake City, Utah, she has often had to buy supplies for students out of her own pocket.
"Sometimes it's really hard," Francis said. "I have some pretty good parental support but not all of my friends are lucky. They have one glue stick for five kids."
Gardner and Francis agree the redditgifts donations are especially important for low-income areas, where many parents are unable to provide their children with basic supplies.
"Obviously a lot of teachers love it when the parents can help out but there are some where, we saw one yesterday, a teacher from Detroit said that her students are all on school lunches for breakfast, lunch and dinner because that's how poor these student demographics are so they're not able to provide a single school supply of their own," Gardner said.
Reddit gift-givers can sign up at redditgifts through August 18 to be paired with a teacher in need.
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