“I think that’s something that the general public doesn’t understand,” said Nancy Goss, an elementary school teacher at Edgewood Primary School. “If there are prizes for the classroom or they need a certain kind of notebook or they want to have books for their kids to write their own stories in, often the expense does come from the teacher’s personal money.”
Teachers also purchase basic supplies for their students whose families can’t afford them. Goss tries to keep a stash of notebooks, pencils, glue sticks and other supplies on hand so no student ever feels embarrassed or different when they have less than their peers.
“It helps to bridge kind of that economic, quiet discrimination that happens,” Goss said. “If those kids feel like they don’t have the right supplies, then that instant stress makes them even more nervous about being there and that feeling is not going to help them achieve.”
In response to this problem of educators spending their own money on their students, the Bloomington Rotary Club created Teachers Warehouse.
The store on Fairview Street looks like any other supply store, except there is no cash register. All public school teachers in Monroe, Greene, Lawrence and Brown counties are able to come to the warehouse and pick up whatever supplies they need for free.
The program operates with assistance from dedicated volunteers as well as donations of supplies and cash. The Rotary Club also host fundraisers, like the 2015 Race for Literacy on June 13.
Runners will meet at 8 a.m. at Bloomington Hardware to run a 5K race around the College Mall area. All of the proceeds collected from the $20 registration fee will go toward Teachers Warehouse.
“Teachers end up spending not only their time but so much of their own money on their students,” Vickie Temple Davison, the owner of Bloomington Hardware, said in a press release. “Teachers Warehouse supports those teachers and the children they teach. Whatever time, money or energy the rest of us in the community can do in helping children, that’s time well spent.”
The race has been taking place since 2003 and is a critical event for keeping the warehouse running.
“I have saved so much on paper supplies and that kind of thing because of Teachers Warehouse,” Goss said. “The volunteers are so great and so helpful and they almost always have exactly what I need.”
