Professor Laura Bruns’s COM 103 class is organizing the drive as a class project to help the Peoria school district 150.
Their goal is to collect unused or brand new school supplies such as binders, pencils, pens, markers, crayons, notebooks and folders for Peoria students in need.
“This hits home personally. Throughout the years I remember teachers complaining about materials needed,” freshman business management major Matt Wiesehan said. “It makes the learning experience a better one. With a foundation [Peoria Public School Foundation] as a charity arm, it is literally going in and helping with education gaps.”
Freshman special education major Eileen Moran said she has noticed how much students need new school supplies.
“With being an education major and observing schools here it is different,” she said. “A lot of the students come from low income families [in Peoria] who desperately need things as simple as notebooks and pencils.”
Wiesehan said by donating school supplies you benefit the whole education system.
“If you know you have an ally within the system you find yourself doing better, you’ll be more prepared,” he said. “It’s like having a good professor, you take more and learn more from the class. It is the same thing with supplies, it makes the teacher’s, parent’s, and student’s jobs easier.”
Wiesehan said he read an article that said the Illinois education system will lose $20 million over the next two decades. He said he hopes to decrease the gap in funding by donating.
“It makes me feel as though we’re doing more for others, even if it is something small,” said Moran. “It’s a great feeling, and it’s not just for you because when you do something nice for someone others start doing the same.”
Sophomore health science major Stephanie Schnitker said she thinks the collection will help people in need.
“I think it’s great. It’s very selfless and it takes a lot as a college student to put others first,” she said.
Moran said besides helping students in need, the project reinforces teamwork.
“We all work together. The point of the project is to communicate, as a member of a team to accomplish that goal I think we have embraced that. Even if the outcome isn’t great we’re still helping, that’s all that matters,” said Moran.
For more information, visit the group’s Facebook page or contact Eileen Moran at ecmoran@mail.bradley.edu or Evan McCauley at emccauley@mail.bradley.edu.
The collection will continue until Monday, when the boxes will be picked up and donated.
