Make Today a Better Day for a Teacher in Northern Virginia

First, let’s get the details out of the way:

Octo­ber 1, 2009

zpizza in South Riding

4:30 pm — 7:00 pm

Details — http://adaymadebettervirginia.eventbrite.com/
(direc­tions, etc., reg­is­tra­tion not necessary)

Bring a school sup­ply dona­tion.

Nom­i­nate a teacher to win all the donated sup­plies + a $75 gift card to Office Max.

We will have door prizes donated by Office Max.

Now, the Why!

Edu­ca­tion Facts

• Fifty per­cent of teach­ers leave the pro­fes­sion within the first five years;
• Each time a teacher leaves the edu­ca­tion sys­tem, the cost is approx­i­mately $11,500 to recruit, hire, and pro­vide ori­en­ta­tion and pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment for the replacement.
• Teach­ers cite a lack of sup­port as the top rea­son for leav­ing the edu­ca­tion profession.
• Edu­ca­tion is one of the “top ten most impor­tant prob­lems” fac­ing the United States (Gallup Poll, 2007)

What is “A Day Made Bet­ter?”

“A Day Made Bet­ter” is a national cause founded by Office­Max and non­profit orga­ni­za­tion, Adopt-A-Classroom, to lead the fight to end teacher-funded classrooms.

Why is Office­Max doing this?

“A Day Made Bet­ter” was founded in response to the fact that teach­ers are now spend­ing on aver­age $1200 out-of-pocket for nec­es­sary class­room sup­plies – col­lec­tively nearly $4 bil­lion annu­ally – to off­set bud­get short­falls, accord­ing to a 2005 sur­vey by the National Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion. Striv­ing to erase teacher-funded class­rooms, Office­Max and Adopt-A-Classroom are work­ing together to cre­ate aware­ness and gen­er­ate wide­spread sup­port for teach­ers nationwide.

How can I help locally?

Attend the “A Day Made Bet­ter” char­ity event in South Rid­ing on Oct 1, 2009. Bring along a school sup­ply dona­tion to add to the Office Max Box. Nom­i­nate an out­stand­ing teacher in your area. We will be giv­ing ONE nom­i­nated teacher all the sup­plies plus a $75 gift card to Office Max. While you are at zpizza, pick up din­ner for your fam­ily and meet some of your neigh­bors. You get a night off from cook­ing and help a good cause all at once. (List of pos­si­ble items for donation.)

If you are not able to attend, you may make a cash dona­tion on the chip-in wid­get right here.

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Is there any­thing else I can do to help?

To show sup­port for “A Day Made Bet­ter,” the pub­lic is invited to do the following:

• Join the Face­book Cause page at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/116541
• Fol­low the cause on Twit­ter at http://twitter.com/adaymadebetter
• Learn more about the cause at www.ADayMadeBetter.com
• Adopt a local teacher through www.AdoptAClassroom.org
• Pur­chase an over­sized paper­clip mag­net at Office­Max stores, which ben­e­fits the Office­Max Char­i­ta­ble Foundation’s pro­gram sup­port­ing K-12 pub­lic school teachers.

Tagged as: charity event, education facts, education profession, gallup poll, Mom It Forward, national education association, northern virginia, Office Max, officemax, replacement teachers, south riding, supply donation, teachers, zpizza