The Good News: Memorial Help #LoveShowUp for Area Teachers

Nearly 100 local teachers, representing 4 counties and 27 different schools, picked up free school supplies for their classrooms on Sunday, August 3^rd during Memorial United Methodist Church’s annual Free Teacher’s Supply Fair. Members of Memorial’s congregation donated and gathered thousands of classroom supplies and then offered them all for free for any teacher who could use them.  It was the largest collection of supplies by the church to date. The nearly 100 teachers in attendance came from Nassau, Duval, Glynn, and Camden County school districts.

Teachers were invited to “shop” for free from the items donated by the church. They picked up much needed supplies like reams of paper, earbuds, pencils, dry erase markers, folders and more. Each teacher also received a bag full of cleaning supplies with items like tissues, paper towels, hand sanitizer cleaning wipes, and magic erasers. The educators were also treated to free Italian Ices from Jeff Cirelli and Little Jimmy's Italian Ices. The local Harris Teeter also donated shopping bags for the event.

Associate Pastor, Rev. Rachel Williams, was encouraged by the way the church was able to help area teachers. ”We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of this grace-filled family at Memorial. They brought in more supplies than ever before for our local teachers. The need is so great and, as we say here at Memorial, this is a way for us to help ’love show up’ for our community.”

Lucinda Lautz, Mission Coordinator at Memorial, says that events like this are important ways that the church can support a healthy community. “We know being a teacher comes with many expenses. That's why we're committed to helping as many local educators as we can stock their classrooms before the first day of school,” she said. “Our goal is to ensure that teachers can focus entirely on teaching and inspiring our children without the stress of worrying about missing essentials.”

Along with the Teacher's Supply Fair, groups from Memorial also worked alongside other area volunteers to help clean up the campus of Yulee Primary, our church/school partner, before the students arrive back! And last Friday, a group for the church provided a brunch for the teachers at Yulee Primary on their first day back to school! Memorial is thankful for our local teachers and the opportunity to support them as they support our area children!