Free Teacher Market
The Bright House Networks Free Teacher Market is open twice a month for selected Polk County School Board Educators!
Help us help teachers! Donate needed school supplies for the Polk Education Foundation's Free Teacher Market. This store helps local teachers receive much needed classroom items and materials to help increase teacher and lesson quality and lessen the burden on teachers’ budgets. You can help by donating items to this store, which opens once a month from August-May. See the list below for any and all items that you may have around your house or office and would like the Polk Education Foundation to reuse. You can also schedule a delivery to the PEF office or schedule a pickup from your business by downloading a receipt (which also helps for tax purposes). Your donations will help make a difference in the lives of students and teachers in Polk County!
THANK YOU to Bright House Networks, whose $10,000 sponsorship bought them Market naming rights for the
2012-13 school year and to the George Jenkins Fund within the Community Foundation of Greater Lakeland for $5,000 in support! Theses monies are allowing us to open twice a month, rather than once a month, due to being able to purchase additional supplies to stock the Market!
We need your help finding a new home!
If we can find a new home for our Free Teacher Market, one that has a loading dock and air-conditioning, we can become part of a national supply network called the Kids in Need Foundation, then for only the cost of shipping, they will send us classroom supplies for FREE! At our current location we do not have the capacity to take in large donations, especially those on pallets, which is how all items would be shipped. We'd like to have a permanent home donated, but if that is not possible, we'd need at least a 5 year commitment of us using the space and not having to find another home before that time. Please call Susan Copeland at 863-534-0434 with any questions or leads.
1,000th Teacher Visits the Free Teacher Market!
In May of 2012, the 1,000th teacher to visit our Market, was surprised with balloons and a gift card to mark the milestone. Thank you to our 2011-12 sponsors Publix Super Markets Charities and for local companies like Lakeside Dental, Disney World, State Farm, Panera Bread and Office Depot who helped with new supplies by doing supply drives at their companies. The Polk County Retired Teachers Association Unit 1 donated over 400 new children's books to the Market, and Dixon Ticonderoga was a large contributor of supplies from their company as well. Thanks again to all!
Information and Documents
