Louis Braille School

There are three easy ways you can help the Louis Braille School gain supplies and money to support its educational program, and all it will cost you is a few minutes of time. The three programs are:

Office Depot 5% Back to Schools
Campbell’s Labels for Education
Box Tops 4 Education

Office Depot 5% Back to Schools

Help our school earn free supplies from Office Depot.

The Louis Braille School will earn credits equal to 5% of your qualifying purchases. Every time you shop at any Office Depot store, at check out tell the cashier, “5% Back to Schools” and give the name and location of our school, Louis Braille School in Edmonds. They will ask for the school ID number, 70207722. If you do not have the ID number, they can quickly look it up.

Do not worry about whether your purchases are qualifying purchases. The store’s computer will figure that out from the receipt codes.

For your convenience, we have wallet-size cards showing the school name and ID number. We will be happy to send you one at your request.

Remember, every time you shop at Office Depot say:

5% Back to Schools
Louis Braille School, Edmonds, WA
ID# 70207722 (or ask them to look it up)

For more information about Office Depot’s 5% Back to Schools, check out their website and scroll down to 5% Back to Schools.

Campbell’s Labels for Education

For more than thirty years, Campbell’s has been awarding free educational equipment to schools in exchange for proofs of purchase from the Campbell’s family of products. Simply save proofs of purchase from participating Campbell’s products and send or bring them to the Louis Braille School, 10130 Edmonds Way, Edmonds, WA 98020.

Look for the Campbell’s Labels for Education logo on the product packaging. We must have the bar code; for beverages we need the bottle cap.

Points accumulate to the school’s credit as the labels are redeemed. When we have enough points, we can select from a wide array of items in a colorful on-line catalog. Points required for items vary with the value of the item.

Some of the products eligible for redemption include: Campbell’s soups, SpaghettiOs, Prego, Swanson, Pepperidge Farm, and V8.

See the Campbell’s website for more information about Campbell’s Labels for Education, and a list of the many qualifying products.

Box Tops 4 Education

General Mills launched its Box Tops 4 Education program in 1996 as a way to help schools gain extra cash by redeeming product box tops. The program has expanded to include Pillsbury, Kimberley Clark, Hefty, and Ziplock with products such as Betty Crocker, Gold Medal, Green Giant, Kleenex, Scott, Progresso, and others.

Please look for the Box Top 4 Education labels on your food products and send the labels to the school. Each Box Top 4 Education label currently is worth ten cents to the school, some are worth more, and there are “bonus point specials.”

See the Box Top website for information.

The twenty or so bags of food donations collected in front of the Edmonds QFC by Ethan, Brett, and Jordan on December 9th and 11th were temporarily stored in the lobby of the Louis Braille School. The pile grew in size after the boys were taken back to the supermarket to spend the $125 of donated cash on more food.

All three students were excited on the morning of Monday, December 15th, the day we had arranged to drive them to the Edmonds United Methodist Church on 828 Caspers Street, so they could deliver the donations to the food bank in person. There were three vehicles in our caravan. Jordan’s mother, Michelle, and his two sisters, Kiley and Gracie, joined us.

We arrived after lunch and were met by Peggy Kennedy, Director of the Food Bank, and Mark Harrison, a photographer for the Seattle Times newspaper. Everyone pitched in to help load the donated food into shopping carts provided by the food bank (see photo, above). A different photograph of the boys, showing them pushing carts into the food bank’s main room, appeared in the Seattle Times the following day of Tuesday, December 16th, on page B-2.

When Peggy was informed over the phone that our students would be making a delivery on Monday, she immediately offered to give them a tour once they had finished dropping off the donated food. We all enthusiastically accepted her invitation.

Peggy walked us through sorting and storage rooms. The kids entered coolers and freezers. All the while she spoke about the work of the food bank, and that was quite a day’s lesson for the students (and the rest of us).

We learned the food bank had been serving 225 to 250 families per week before Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving week they served 399 families. “The miracle is, we did not run out of anything,” Peggy said. “For Christmas,” she added, “we’ll give a two-week supply [of food] to more than 300 families.”

Peggy told the boys, “You can be very proud of yourselves because you’ve helped feed a lot of hungry people.”

Everyone listened with interest as she went on to say there are 110 volunteers working for the food bank. Some of them sort or pack food, others make numerous trips each month to collect food donations from supermarkets.

“We work and have a lot of fun,” Peggy said. “Some of us have been here for 20 years. We’re like an extended family.” She got a big laugh as she added, “You don’t have to be crazy to work here. We’ll train you.”

Later, when we returned to the Louis Braille School, the students and teachers emphatically agreed that the food drive and tour were worthwhile.

“I liked pushing the carts!” Brett boomed.

“I’m glad that we donated food to the food bank. It was a great experience,” a happy Jordan said.

“Thank you [for helping us help the food bank]” Ethan told the teachers and staff.

Teacher Beckie was proud of her students. “It was a good experience for the children to learn why people go to the food bank,” she said. “It’s awesome to know these boys helped so many people and families.”

Jennifer said, “I couldn’t believe the number of people the food bank helps, the size of some families receiving the help [Peggy Kennedy mentioned one family with 15 children], and how organized the workers are. I’m glad the boys got to hear about the people they’ve helped. They were excited all the way from collecting to delivering the food.”

Teacher Dianne approved of the boys’ follow-through. “I think it’s wonderful the children could see the culmination of what they started,” she said.

A few days after the tour, I called Peggy Kennedy and she had some additional words of praise. “The children have so much to deal with in their lives and it doesn’t seem to be slowing them down at all,” she said. “I thought they were fabulous. It was just amazing to me. I was amazed at how well they interacted with everyone. They went out and did a fantastic job. They’re all little charmers.”

People wishing to volunteer at the Food Bank are asked to come in on a Monday morning. Various tasks must be done. The staff will help you find one you like.

Donations of food may be left inside two large doors on the west side of the church between 9 am and 8 pm. Cash donations can be given to the staff in the upstairs office.

The runs the food bank at 828 Caspers Street in Edmonds. The phone numbers for more information are: 425-778-5833 (Food Bank)   425-778-2119 (Church Office).

No one who saw Brett, Ethan, and Jordan collecting food in front of the Edmonds QFC on December 9th and 11th will ever forget them. The activity began with a good sign—literally and figuratively. The literal sign was a poster written by teacher Beckie that read, ‘Help Us Help Others. Food Bank Drive.’

The figurative sign was authored by fate. Carolyn Meyer, our school’s Director, went inside the store to find a means of securing the poster to the legs of the card table that our donation boxes rested on. When she asked a check-out stand cashier for a roll of adhesive, a customer standing in line pulled a tape dispenser out of his grocery bag and handed it to her.

Teachers Beckie and Dianne, with assistance from Jennifer, made sure the boys were warm and comfortable in the chilly weather. The three students took up positions in front of the QFC market directly across the street from the Louis Braille School. There they solicited donations verbally and by handing out flyers to shoppers entering and exiting the building. The large boxes set upon the card table to hold donations had explanations taped to them which read:

The Louis Braille School students are asking for your help! We are collecting non-perishable food for the local food bank to help those in need in our community this season. Please donate and help us with our project of helping others.

The presence of television news cameramen who covered the food drive for Seattle stations KING-5 and KOMO-4 confused or intimated some shoppers at first, although the boys were glad for the attention and for the chance to put on earphones and hold the microphone.

Nationwide, news media recently have been reporting a drop in food bank donations at a time when increasing numbers of people need help with feeding their families. Within that context, Jordan, Ethan, and Brett were unusually successful. They spent 45 minutes collecting donations each of the two days they were at QFC, for a total of one-and-a-half hours. In that brief time, people responded with what amounted to about 20 full shopping bags of groceries and $125 in cash. Some shoppers who donated food did so by returning to the store after initially exiting.

I saw more than one person look at the boys with a real-life poignancy that Hollywood actors can only hope to approximate. One man came out of the market with no groceries at all. He saw the boys, but kept walking. Then he slowed his step, stopped, and turned back to watch and listen for a minute. Perhaps he read the poster. In any case, he lightly shook his head, walked towards the boys, opened his wallet, and left a generous donation for the food bank. It was obvious that something opened inside himself first.

All of us had seen the cameramen genuinely enjoying the company of our students and teachers. After the food drive story was broadcast on KING-5 and KOMO-4 during the evening of December 11th,  I took the unusual step of re-contacting the cameramen and asking them to write about their impressions of that day.

Here are their notes:

“I was impressed [by] what great kids they are. It was wonderful to see [them] putting their own issues aside and doing something to help their community. It was very apparent their teachers care very deeply about them. What a warm and nurturing environment the school provides to the students. Keep up the good work.”
—Bryan Hollowell  KOMO-4 TV News  

“Sometimes I get to do something fun.  As a television news photographer I have the opportunity to observe and witness many fascinating subjects and events.  Not all of them are pleasant.  Each fun shoot seems to be balanced with too many sad stories or heavy stories about our current economy or Iraq. 

“Last week I found myself on a story that made me forget all the nonsense and remember how special individual people can be.  While most of us are tangled up in deciding what presents to get during the holidays, I met a group of students and teachers that were thinking about others this Christmas season.

“The students of the Louis Braille School took the time to ask for donations at an Edmonds grocery store that ended up going to the local food bank.  While each of these students has [his] own set of hurdles [in] everyday life, they were enthusiastically working the folks for donations and thanking everyone they met either way.

“I did interviews with the students and one of the teachers and they gave me great sound bites for our news story.  I appreciate all of them taking the time to talk to me and help me tell the story of that event.  I was reminded of the principle of Ujima and the spirit of Kwanza that the students were studying* and left feeling pretty good about the rest of my day.  I wish I could have stayed longer and seen how many goodies they collected. I just wanted to say good job to the Louis Braille school and thank you for giving me a good news day.”  
—David Wike,  KING-5 TV News 

And what did Ethan, Jordan, and Brett do in the wake of all this attention?

They wrote ‘thank you’ notes to QFC for giving them the opportunity to collect food donations for the hungry.

*See a previous blog post, ‘We’re Going to the Food Bank,‘ for more on Ojima.

“I’ve always thought it was good for non-profits to work together and not feel they have to be separate,” said Barbara Chase on a recent visit to our school. “I think we all benefit when people with similar interests work together.”

Barbara certainly has put her beliefs into practice for the Louis Braille School.

A master gardener belonging to Edmonds in Bloom — a local non-profit organization with a mission to improve the floral beauty of our city — she persuaded the group’s board members to donate the resources necessary to obtain an attractive wooden planter box, fill it with colorful fall foliage, and place it in front of the school a few weeks ago.

“I think beautifying the school is uplifting for the students, staff and for the parents that come in,” she said.

Barbara also contacted members of local Cub Scout Pack 300 and Boy Scout Troop 301, who, along with their parents, recently made two trips to the Louis Braille School to clear leaves from our parking lot and rain gutters, do some weeding, and begin the process of removing moss from the roof.

Barbara first became known to locally accomplished gardeners after entering an Edmonds in Bloom gardening competition. The judges were impressed with her work and eventually asked her to join the organization’s board.

For our 2007 and 2008 benefit auctions, she allied with Edmonds in Bloom to offer services described in last spring’s auction catalog this way:

Get a peek at some of Edmonds’ most beautiful backyards during the 2008 Edmonds in Bloom Garden Tour on Sunday, July 18, 2008.

Add to that a one hour consultation with Master Gardener Barbara Chase to help you with your yard and garden.

One of the winning bidders asked Barbara to advise her on growing plants in planter containers on the balcony of her condominium.

“You need to do things in a different way [for containers] than you do in a garden,” she said.

The other winner was an experienced gardener whose wife had very different ideas from his when it came to designing their garden.

“They asked my opinion about whether or not they should take out certain things,” Barbara recalled. “Sometimes people like someone other than themselves to say it’s okay to take out something they’re afraid to remove.

“But we live in the great Northwest, where everything grows very quickly. So I have to tell people, ‘Yes, it’s okay to take out that plant, because you’ll be able to grow five others in its place,’” she said, and laughed.

“There’s something about what happens when you watch things grow,” she added. “You put a little seed in the ground, later you divide plants and give some to other people when you have an excess, and you see them thrilled by their Shasta Daisies when they first start. Beginning gardeners like to have something that looks good right away. Then after that, you need a little more patience.”

If we’re lucky, Barbara will offer a consultation for our next auction (on March 21, 2009) and you can bid on her gardening knowledge to help you plan the best ways to watch things grow.

On December 3rd, Louis Braille School teacher Beckie taught the children about Kwanzaa, a celebration of African heritage that is observed each year from December 26th to January 1st. Kwanzaa is one of several holidays the students are studying.

Kwanzaa embraces seven principles, including one called Ujima (oo-GEE-mah), defined as:

Collective Work and Responsibility, meant to remind us of our obligation to the past, present and future, and that we have a role to play in the community, society, and world.

As a discussion of Ujima grew, the students were asked to think of people in our community facing hardship and what they might need.

The talk quickly came around to food. Everyone responded enthusiastically to a suggestion that students and teachers obtain permission to stand in front of a nearby supermarket and collect from shoppers donations to be given to the local food bank.

“I think it’s wonderful we’re going to sit at a table and pass out our flyers to people and have a box for them to put food in,” said one boy.

“We’re going to the food bank!” said another, after everyone decided we will take the collected non-perishable food items directly to the place where food is distributed.

Part of the mission of the Louis Braille School is to teach our students “to use one’s education and talents in the services of others.” Soliciting donations for the food bank is an exemplary way of fulfilling that mission.

“The students are learning that they are part of the community and how they can contribute to others,” said one teacher. Another said she was looking forward to seeing the faces of the students as they hand out flyers and take in donations. “They have such good hearts,” she said.

Teacher Beckie said, “We want to help people in our community because so many people in the community help us.”

Students will collect food donations at the Westgate QFC market on Edmonds Way in Edmonds from about 1:45 to 2:30 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, December 9th and 11th.

Look for pictures and a report on the results of their efforts soon after December 11th.