Mark Loren Designs is a collection site for The Foundation for Lee Public Schools, school supplies drive. The Foundation keeps them in their office and they will be available for any teacher in the district who needs supplies for particular students who don’t have any pencils, paper, rulers or other necessary items. We have been collecting at the gallery and every person or business (thanks Bank America) that drops-off items, makes our hearts soar. How do I know it will make someone incredibly happy to get that hot pink, pencil box? My youngest daughter and I stopped by Big Lots with our $75 dollar donation budget and went right to the huge school supply aisle. We found fantastic prices on the materials we wanted to get and I noticed that I was getting excited picking out crayons and erasers! I was transported back 40 some odd years to when my grandfather would take us boys to the store to buy our “back to school” stuff. We didn’t have itemized lists then but he seemed to always know what was required and we were always allowed to pick out one “extravagant” extra like a cool pencil box or mechanical pen. I vividly remember getting home and racing upstairs to view and sort through my new stuff…the look of it, the smell of the new notebooks and crayon boxes…and all this was coming back to me in the aisle at Big Lots. My daughter woke me from my reverie, “Dad come on, you’re doing that zone out thing on me again!” When Haise saw all the pencil packs I was buying she asked about picking out pencil sharpeners at 75cents each. I sadly mentioned we were over budget already and she volunteered $5 of her allowance so whoever got pencils would also have a lime green sharpener too.
As we were packing the bags in the trunk of the car I caught her sniffing the bags and smiling….hopefully creating her own special memories.