BOZEMAN — At the end of the summer, parents are tasked with making sure their kids have school supplies for the upcoming school year, but teachers also have that same task for their students.
“Sometimes it feels like in order to make a difference we have to do a big, bold grand gesture, and sometimes it doesn’t take a big bold grand gesture to make a difference,” said the organizer of #ClearTheList, Lauren Brendel.
And this opportunity can allow people to make a difference with something as simple as a pack of paper.
“It’s really as simple as clicking on an Amazon wishlist, perusing the items that educator has on their list, finding one or two items or if you can buy the whole list, that’s fantastic, adding them to your cart selecting their wishlist address at the end, confirming your payment and hitting purchase," said Brendel. "It literally takes two minutes.”
This Bozeman resident saw the ClearTheList idea from social media and decided to bring it to the Gallatin Valley.
“Leaning into things like this and taking care of each other, I really have no doubt that we can get these teachers and educators the supplies that they need to have a really happy and successful school year,” added Brendel.
After a couple of dozen educators responded to Lauren, she made a Google doc with links to their wish lists but no other information is exchanged.
"I could see that I’m buying items for Beth," said Brendel. "I can add them to my cart. I can pay for them. I can have them shipped to her directly, but it doesn’t show me the teacher’s address so there is that privacy factor that’s built into this process.”
Whether it’s a pack of pencils or the entire list, if you want to donate any of the supplies you can find the link here.
