I met Dominic LeNoir at the HomeGrown STL Summit in the summer of 2023. We sparked a genuine connection right away and conversed about some of the common issues in the K-12 system including the lack of social- emotional development, literacy, penmanship, and fine motor skills due to everything being digitized during the pandemic. After our conversation, I shared my books with Mr. LeNoir and he shared that he was the principal of Danforth Elementary, a school within the Riverview Gardens School District. He reviewed my books and agreed they would be an asset to his students and staff. He committed to purchasing a set of books for the 2023-2024 school year.

This was the first time a principal saw the intrinsic value of my books and committed to paying the monetary price. Of course, over the years, several teachers had purchased classroom sets. However, as a teacher, I know how little our resources and finances are. So, to have a principal invest in his students, staff, and me in this way was an unforgettable moment.

That August, we began finalizing the details of the purchase. Originally, he wanted to order workbooks for the entire school- Kindergarten- 5th grade which was an estimate of 200 students. I sent the invoice to the school’s secretary and once she saw the price of each book with the Early Bird Educator’s Discount (40% off), she informed me that based on the school’s budget, they would only be able to afford half of the books. I sent a new invoice for 100 books. A couple of days later, she provided me the exact dollar amount the school had in it’s budget for this purchase. It was $200 shy of the new invoice amount. This was frustrating and slightly disheartening because let’s be honest, a 40% discount is STEEP and cut deep into the profit margin AND it still wasn’t enough. This experience was also eye-opening, revealing the numerous hoops we as educators have to jump through to provide our students with the books, resources, and materials they need to succeed- often with the smallest budgets they can afford to give us.

Thankfully, I was able to “fundraise” the $200 (Shout out to my mom) so that each of Danforth’s Kindergarten and 1st grade students received their own workbook. This experience taught me that if I wanted my books to be in the schools, it would have to be a communal effort. It has taken almost 2 years to get this initiative off the ground, but we are finally here.

It only seems fitting that I would start with the school that invested in me first!