Tribune/Debra Reid - Cardboard tubes could become student telescopes in the creative and resourceful mind of Brookfield School teacher Terri Staats. Staats found classroom supplies at the Education Alliance of Washoe County's teachers' warehouse on Tuesday.
Tribune/Debra Reid - Brookfield School teachers Rose Ferrall and Terri Staats found posters, paper and other classroom supplies at the Education Alliance of Washoe County's teachers' warehouse on Tuesday. Donated supplies are available to all teachers in the district although some charter and private schools pay for access to the facility.
“It (the warehouse) is a life saver and it saves the taxpayers thousands of dollars,” said Mike Patterson, a digital arts and photo teacher at Damonte Ranch High School.
But this year, with everyone hurting to make their own ends meet, contributions to the teachers’ warehouse are down, though not quite out.
On Tuesday, Patterson acquired a desk free of charge for his classroom at the teachers’ warehouse. Terri Staats and Rose Ferrall, both pre-kindergarten teachers at Brookfield Private School in southwest Reno, found unexpected items they will make creative use of in their classrooms.
A box of heavy cardboard tubing inspired a science project for Staats, who teaches math, reading and science to her preschoolers.
“These could be telescopes,” Staats explained as she peered through one of the tubes.
As their warehouse search continued, Staats and Ferrall collected colorful posters and bags for their students. Other teachers filled shopping carts with reams of paper, file folders, books and binders. Staats said the warehouse has been an indispensable source of supplies and ideas she otherwise could not afford.
Office and art supplies and furniture are donated by local businesses and individuals, said Gary McDowell, warehouse coordinator for the Education Alliance. McDowell named a few of his regular donors, including MacPhersons’s Art Supply Warehouse, Lifetouch Portrait Studios, Evco Interiors, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and, most recently, Borders Bookstore.
“Borders donates stationery items and books that don’t sell,” McDowell said.
He added that Lifetouch regularly donates picture frames and Evco Interiors donates fabric samples that teachers find ways to use. The BLM recently donated 600 binders and other office supplies.
“The bigger fabric samples are used as book covers or for art projects,” McDowell explained. “Teachers have huge imaginations — they have to any more.”
McDowell said the warehouse was started in the 1990s at a Glendale Avenue location in Sparks by businessman Ross Barker. At the time, Barker owned Barker Total Print Management. He now owns e-Quantum, an online e-commerce company located in Sparks.
“He was on the Education Alliance board of directors and had some stuff to get rid of,” McDowell said.
Instead of sending his excess business supplies to the landfill, Barker wanted to donate those items to teachers. Donating supplies to the school district saved Barker, and other business owners, the expense of sending discarded items to the dump.
In 2009, McDowell said he was busy picking up supplies from businesses that were closing their doors. Those donations have slowed down this year as have donations in general, McDowell said Wednesday.
With the start of classes at traditional-track schools later this month, classroom supplies are in high demand at the warehouse right now, said Coleen DeLong, partnership and marketing coordinator for the alliance. For students whose families cannot afford them, teachers buy necessary classroom items such as notebooks, pencils, sharpies, glue sticks and other art supplies. Seasonal holiday items, no longer needed by businesses, are popular with teachers throughout the year.
“During the past several years, someone from every school in the district has shopped at the warehouse,” DeLong said.
She added that she’s heard of other teachers’ warehouses somewhere in the eastern United States but DeLong believes the local warehouse is unique in Nevada.
Donations of all kinds are needed at this time of year but, in particular, the demand is high for bookcases and “nice” rolling and regular office chairs, McDowell said. Donations can dropped off at the warehouse from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at 380 Edison Way in Reno. For donation pickup, call McDowell at the warehouse at 691-0216.
For more information on the Education Alliance, visit www.ed-alliance.org.
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