9 School Tools donations make a difference at Charlotte schools

CHARLOTTE — Every summer, Channel 9 partners with Classroom Central to make sure teachers and students have the supplies they need for a successful school year. With classes in full swing, Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis visited one school where your donations are hard at work.

Erin Scannell is a school counselor at Windsor Park Elementary — a Title I school in Charlotte. During Scannell’s monthly shopping trip at Classroom Central, it was clear how quickly the critical supplies add up.

“$800 — yeah, that’s awesome, cause I could not do that on my own every month," she said.

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At her school, Scannell is responsible for stocking their supply shelves, and taking pens, markers and notebooks where they’re needed. Bringing supplies to a kindergarten class, she said the students are like “kids in the candy store.”

“People in education are wonderful,” she said. “They work really hard for the students and their families and for their colleagues, and they invest a lot of time and also a lot of their own money.”

Alongside that reality is the fact that many students don’t have the basics they need to succeed.

“For the students, it’s confidence,” Scannell said. “We make sure that they have everything they need the minute they step on the grounds.”

Classroom Central and 9 School Tools donations help do that every year.

“It’s a lot of demand on our time and our energy, and to be able to take a little bit off our plate and know that they have what they need every day when they come to school, and the kids have what they need every day when they come to school, is wonderful,” Scannell said.

Channel 9 is teaming up with viewers like you to help kids stay warm this winter with the 9 Coats for Kids Drive.

On Dec. 17, we’ll have our annual 9 Coats for Kids Collection Day at the Arboretum Shopping Center Walmart. The first 50 people to donate will receive tickets to Monopoly Lifesized at Blume Studios.

We’ll be accepting donations through Jan. 1. Coats can be dropped off at any of the donation sites on the map below.

VIDEO: ‘Times are tough’: 9 School Tools donations help teachers with needed supplies