One Chicago Public Schools teacher's passionate essay has helped bring an entire year's worth of school supplies to not just her students, but to all the students at her school.
School supply kits were being handed out Friday to children at Saucedo Scholastic Academy in Chicago, located at California and 24th Street.
An assembly was called to end the first week of school on the news that non-profit, 'Back 2 School Illinois' had chosen the Little Village school as a grant recipient -- and they chose it because of eighth-grade teacher Mari Mendoza-Ramirez.
"As a former CPS student, born and raised here, and now I'm a resident here and work in Little Village, I know the personal struggles that many of our families are going through," she said.
Mendoza-Ramirez wrote to the non-profit over the summer and her essay garnered 1,000 supply kits, tailored to three age groups.
"[Students] come with nothing for the first day of school," she said. "And I just told them the way that it was. I was very transparent and said, 'We need help. We need school supplies.'"
Fellow teachers at the school said if it weren't for the donation, they would be scrounging supply cabinets for used materials or purchasing supplies with their own money.
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Read the full essay below:
