Kathy Ejnioui started with the Education Foundation Osceola County 20 years ago, when A Gift for Teaching was born.
She was part time then, and she’s now the Director of Programs for the organization that partners with public school teachers to make sure their classrooms are stocked with the vital supplies students need to thrive — and they’ll be in those classrooms in just under a month.
To make sure both students and teachers are succeeding this upcoming school year, A Gift For Teaching — a free store program that allows K-12 teachers in schools of the highest need to get the supplies students need free of charge at its store once a month — is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a “Supplying Our Future” supply drive through the month of July.
Those who want to donate can drop off supplies at the store location at 2310 New Beginnings Road, just off Simpson Road south of the Osceola School District’s transportation depot and Professional and Technical High School.
The most requested items are loose-leaf paper, pencils, erasers, notebooks, glue sticks, pocket folders, dry erase markers, highlighters, colored pencils and crayons. AGFT does not accept furniture and computers or other electronics due to space and data considerations.
But, to ask Ejnioui, the most requested things are financial contributions — all funds will be used by A Gift For Teaching to provide supplies.
“Cash is king,” Ejnioui said. “If we don’t get enough of the basics — paper, pencils, notebook, glue sticks — we have to go buy them. I have a supplier who gives us really good deals and delivers for free.”
The goals are to raise $20,000 — for the 20 years — and provide $80,000 in needed supplies this month.
It doesn’t last long and goes out the door just as fast as it comes in. AGFT starting out helping supply 12 county schools; that’s now up to 64. About three-quarters of Osceola public school students learn in Title I schools where lunch, and often breakfast, is served free. Over the past 20 years, A Gift For Teaching Osceola has provided over $28.5 million in school supplies to Osceola County classrooms, serving 80,000 teachers with nearly 150,000 backpacks and millions of pencils.
“The challenges have been unique,” Ejnioui said. “Luckily for us we started doing deliveries to schools right before COVID, to serve schools that were 15 miles away, where teachers couldn’t just come here. We’d stuff a box of supplies and get it to them. We had just gotten a grant to purchase the van and some supplies, then COVID happened. So we did direct deliveries because we had to stop the face-to-face operation. The teachers love it, so we expanded it to sending 400 packed supply kits a month.”
The store re-opened in January 2021. “We had about 200 teachers come by last month (it’s open Tuesdays and Wednesdays).”
She said the challenges after 20 years are still pretty basic: getting the word out about what A Gift For Teaching does, the need and the service.
“We have a new database that allows us to reach eligible teachers directly with the options of how to shop,” Ejnioui said. “We have a unique relationship with the district in that we’re a district service organization, a non-profit set up solely to benefit the school district.”
