I am very passionate about helping the community, and I heard about an amazing operation called Project Classroom, created to help our teachers everywhere.

When students think of teachers, they think of the people that give them homework and lots of tough projects. In reality, teachers try to help us learn and prepare us for adulthood. But while teachers support us, most times teachers themselves are not as supported as they should be. They work long hours for little pay. The average teacher salary in NC was a little under $54,000. This has to cover all of their bills, food, and other necessities for the year. This also had to cover the hundreds of dollars of supplies that they buy for their students, whether it is for the community or for a student who is struggling. This takes a lot of money and time from the teachers. It was time for a solution: Project Classroom, run through Hope Community Church. This act of kindness had no religious affiliation; it was simply a way to help the struggling teachers of Wake County.

Hope has four campuses all around Wake County, and all of them were participating in Project Classroom. Located in Raleigh, Apex, Morrisville, and Garner, people all across Wake County donated supplies and money to support our teachers. Over time, nine thousand pounds of supplies were donated. To give you an idea of how much that is, one pound equals eighty wooden pencils. If it was all pencils, there would be 720,000 pencils. People donated pencils, glue sticks, scissors, and any other necessities for a child to attend school. Not only that, over $37,000 was donated from all across the county. This was used to buy gift cards to thank teachers for everything that they do. Now that they had all the supplies and money, it was time to deliver everything to the various schools across Wake County.

Hundreds of people gave up their time to help the giant movement of supplies. First, the supplies were put into different baskets so each teacher received the same things. Volunteers made anonymous handwritten notes to add to the baskets. The baskets were then loaded into trucks to take to the different schools. Once there, the volunteers brought them inside the school for the teachers, who were overcome with emotion, to enjoy. This was done all across the county. 

Twenty schools and 1,100 of our amazing teachers were impacted by the gifts given from Hope Community Church. Though Apex High School has not received anything, it doesn’t mean we can’t help our teachers out. Make sure your teachers know how much you care. Be there to support them and help them out. They aren’t heavily supported, so why not help support them?