Crayons to Calculators – Helping Low Income Students

Crayons To Calculators is an annual program in which Impact on Education, in partnership with the Boulder and St. Vrain Valley School District, collects school supplies and cash donations to buy supplies. They stuff more than 11 thousand backpacks for students in need throughout Boulder County. Community members of all ages gather from far and wide to help pack these backpacks.

Allison Billings, Director of Impact on Education, tells KGNU’s Lucy Soucek that it may not seem like much, but providing backpacks to kids in need makes a real difference.

“I’ve talked to kids, I did a little focus group with some graduating seniors a few weeks ago, and asked them about their experience in BVSD being kids who are graduating and going out into the world and I was so inspired by the things that I heard . . . one of the students told me I got a backpack each year, and I knew that I would have the school supplies and on the first day of school, I would be just as ready as all of my peers. And so that made a difference to her, and it eliminated that barrier. There are kids in our district that have incredible opportunities and then there are kids in our district that don’t. And I feel like our role as a foundation is to eliminate as many the barriers to success that we can for all the kids in the district.”

The group is expecting to have 500 volunteers gather to help over the next few weeks. Some shifts are still available, but right now, their most critical need are donations. They have donation boxes throughout Boulder County. You can find out more about the program, locations of the donation boxes, and how to help online at www.Crayonstocalculators.org.

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