(09/16/2022) Through Office Depot’s Start Proud!® Program, all students at Monroe Elementary School - Mathematics, Science and Children’s Engineering and Evergreen Park Elementary: STEM School of Innovation received backpacks filled with school supplies.
Office Depot distributed 1,000 backpacks stocked with notebooks, composition books, crayons, pencils, highlighters and more last week and held a special event at Monroe on Sept. 9. The donation and event were facilitated by the Anoka-Hennepin Educational Foundation (AHEF).
“This donation was meaningful to our school community because it made starting school stress free from a financial perspective of having to provide school supplies,” said Amy Oliver, principal at Monroe. “I took many calls from families who were excited to hear that supplies and a backpack were being provided for their student(s).”
During the event, Office Depot representatives revealed more than $30,000 will be donated to the school for supplies and Boise Paper announced an additional donation of $12,000 in supplies to Monroe. Another big surprise came when special education teacher Billie Davis-Fehr was announced an “All Star Teacher” and was provided with $2,000 worth of supplies for her classroom.
“When Monroe staff and students attended the Office Depot Start Proud assembly, we knew the students would get backpacks filled with supplies, but a teacher gift was not expected until they announced that one lucky teacher would be chosen,” Davis-Fehr said. “I sat at the assembly with kindergarten students wondering who the lucky teacher would be. I never expected to be the teacher chosen for the generous gift of office supplies from Office Depot. I am so grateful for their support and I have already put the office supplies to use in my special education classroom at Monroe Elementary.”
The high-energy event included music and some dancing to help Monroe students get excited for the school year.
“The excitement level was amazing,” Oliver said. “Our students were happy to answer the questions asked by the Office Depot staff and it was fun to be able to select their own backpack as they got ready to leave the assembly. There were a lot of happy faces and nice manners from our Monroe students thanking the awesome volunteers who came to serve our school.”
View photos and watch this news story from CCX News about the event:
