Educators partner with Classroom Central to provide essential school supplies

CHARLOTTE — Neither Raquel Rhodes nor Bridget Speller-Purington thought they’d end up teaching elementary students.

“It’s like the passion and the calling I didn’t know I needed,” Speller-Purington told Channel 9’s Elsa Gillis.

After exploring other careers, Rhodes became a Spanish immersion teacher at Oaklawn Language Academy in Charlotte, and Speller-Purington is a fifth grade teacher at Sherwood Elementary in Gastonia.

“I love what I do,” Rhodes said. “It’s so fulfilling.”

The two educators have spent their summer at Classroom Central as the teachers in residence, working on resources to support students in need.

The nonprofit provides free school supplies to teachers across six school districts, and in turn, to tens of thousands of students.

“The thousands, and I say thousands because it really is thousands of dollars, that I save on every month of visits is incredible,” Rhodes said. “It’s just been such a great help.”

Speller-Purington says it also takes the pressure off parents by providing young learners with pencils, crayons, paper and other items many students don’t have.

It’s a basic building block that allows teachers to empower their students from the first day on. Rhodes and Speller-Purington say they need the community support to be a village and lift their students up.

“Every day I tell my students, ‘Sí se puede. Yes, you can do it,’” Rhodes said. ”Giving them those supplies encourages them to do so."

Channel 9 is working with Classroom Central to ensure kids in the community have what they need in our annual School Tools Drive. You can help by dropping off new school supplies at local Ashley stores, ER services and Charlotte Fire Stations from now through August 31.

Learn more and find a full list of drop-off locations here.

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