April Berry with the Salvation Army is today’s guest speaker at Rotary Luncheon

TOP PHOTO: Members of the South Campbell County Rotary Club heard from Amber Goins, the founder and director of the Campbell County Teacher Depot at last Tuesday’s Rotary Luncheon.

By Charlotte Underwood 

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – Members of the South Campbell County Rotary Club heard from Amber Goins, the founder and director of the Campbell County Teacher Depot at last Tuesday’s Rotary Luncheon.

According to Goins, the non-profit has been established to help provide “much needed” classroom supplies for area educators. 

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The weekly Rotary story is generally published on Wednesdays. Due to technical adjustments to the WLAF website last Tuesday and Wednesday, the story did not run until today.

Goins was with the Knox County Teacher Depot for seven years; five as a board member and two years on staff and is now back to her Campbell County roots raising funds for her home district. 

Goins said she wanted to venture out on her own to start the Campbell County Depot to help local teachers. 

Campbell County has approximately 400 teachers in the district serving 5,000 students in the county’s 13 schools.

According to Goins, classroom teachers have the burden of buying much of their own classroom supplies and some parents “just  cannot afford to buy all the supplies their kids need.”

The average cost of school supplies is $150 per student, not counting clothes and shoes. This is for “core supplies” like paper, pencils, markers, crayons, backpacks and the like.

Goins said the hope was to get people and local businesses networking to help find a “steady funding stream” for supplies for the teacher depot.

She is also writing grants to help get establish a steady funding stream. 

The first project of the newly established nonprofit was to provide packs of crayons to every Kindergarten student in the school district.  Around 2,200 packs of crayons were distributed at the start of the school year.

The mission of the CC Teacher Depot is to “provide free classroom supplies to educators in Campbell County Schools to enhance instruction in the classroom and promote student achievement.”

“We talk to the teachers to find out what their classroom needs are. We want to be fair across the district and help teachers district wide. Teachers in all the schools need help with supplies,” Goins said.

According to the Depot’s vision statement, it is “committed to working with teachers in the public school system. By providing classroom supplies, we help reduce the financial burden for educators, making a positive impact on the community.”

“My hope is for this to help fill in the gaps. Teachers want to provide for their students, but it gets expensive quickly. That’s where the Teacher Depot comes in,” Goins said. 

The Campbell County Teacher Depot is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and relies on the “support and generosity of the community.”

“Donations enable us to support teachers with essential classroom supplies,” Goins said. 

The CC Teacher Depot seeks monetary donations as the funds will stretch further with the non-profit’s ability to buy in bulk and to buy items tax exempt. Local businesses are also encouraged to get involved. 

For more information or to donate, visit ccteacherdepot.org or email info@ccteacherdepot.org. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 09/12/2023-6AM)

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