Off to School with Elmer's Bag It Forward

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  Getting my son ready for school we shopped for  Elmer's Bag it Forward, a Champions for Kids project, while doing our school shopping. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client. #BagItForward #cfk #shop

When I was a child I looked forward to back to school shopping. It was special one-on-one time with my Mom, and though I knew money was tight, she always managed to save enough for a few fun extras. I usually chose the least expensive spiral notebooks and pencils so I could splurge on my favorite pencil box, fun erasers and pencil toppers.

My son is gearing up for his big start to the school year in 2 weeks. He will be attending the same elementary school my husband did about 30 years ago! While visiting the school for pre-registration, I found out the current principal was my 6th grade teacher. In our little rural community not only is the school site historic, but the the original one room school house is still standing. Students still hatch chicks each Spring and the staff comes up with creative ways to make school fun.

In 2009, this little elementary school even entered the Guinness Book of  World Records for the largest marble tournament. It was quite an event.

Despite all these great reasons to be excited for the coming year, I am still a mom, and still nervous to send my oldest off to school. I did want to make school supply shopping as memorable for him as it was for me. We headed to our local Walmart, since it has the largest school supply selection in our small town, and got our school supply list at the kiosk just inside the door. Look for the Elmer's sign to locate yours.

Sadly, I didn't notice any fun or crazy pencil toppers or shaped erasers while we shopped, son's thing anyway. Instead I decided to make this shopping trip special by getting my son to #BagItForward with Champions For Kids #cfk.

You might remember that we donated last year, too. It is so easy to get my kids excited about giving back through this program. While we shopped for our own supplies, I grabbed extra to fill another bag for our school. The prices were right for stocking up. Elmer's School Glue and crayons were just 2/$1. Spiral notebooks were only $0.17 each. My son took charge this year and wanted to see how many sales we could find in the store. There are a lot of them.

Being a rural community the drawback is parents don't want to ask for help. Since everyone knows everyone, it is hard to admit if you can't afford school supplies. That is why I love this program. I will donate our items to my son's teacher to be used as needed. No one has to be embarrassed or singled out. This will also keep the Kindergarten teacher from having to spend any money out of her own pocket.

This year the supply list is simple: crayons, markers, pencils, Elmer's School Glue, glue sticks, etc.. I also added in Kleenex and saline Boogie Wipes for the classroom to help with runny noses and sticky fingers.

Generous friends contributed extra supplies during a play date, also. I asked families for extra supplies to help fill the box for the Kindergarten class. Everyone was happy to bring an extra bottle of glue and box of crayons, or glue sticks and pencils for a good cause. It all adds up quickly.

I put our donation in a handy plastic storage container hoping the teacher could re-purpose it later.

I think it meant a lot to my son to hand over the tub of supplies to his new teacher. He was contributing to his classroom and helping out his fellow students. It not only made him feel good, but helped with any fears he had about school.

Now I hope you will be inspired to participate with Elmer's Bag It Forward program and any of the other Champions For Kids service projects. It's so easy to get involved by just grabbing a few more supplies. Get your friends and family to help fill a box or backpack at your next party or play date.

Learn more about Elmer's Bag it Forward program on the Champions For Kids site. Also check out the Bag it Forward Pinterest board for even more inspiration.

Where will you Bag it Forward?

Wrapping up our #NickCFK Book Drive - Still Time to Get Involved

Last week I shared my family's love of reading and our September Simple Service Project to collect books for a local Big Help Book Drive in my #NickCFK post. This stack of books represents most of the stories we collected for our local Head Start program.

Since the Head Start program is for children ages 3-5, which is the same ages of my own children, I had them help me select books for the donation. Who better to help with this project than peers. Of course my children love the Nickelodeon characters so they selected several books featuring Dora, Olivia, Team Umizumi, The Bubble Guppies and Blues Clues. My husband and I read to our children every night and I can't imagine a home not filled with books for young, eager minds.

This is a great month to participate with Champions for Kids. They want to get regular people involved to be one of millions to meet their goal of 20 million people participating in Simple Service Projects by 2020. Could you imagine the good that could come of that many people helping others? Helping their communities? I am proud to be one of millions and I hope I am setting a great example for my children to continue on with projects like this.

Since the last post, my order from Walmart.com arrived with even more great Nickelodeon books to add to the donation pile. I have to tell you, the stack grew quickly from the books we purchased at the start (Check out my Google+ album HERE), the books we donated from our own stash and books that were sent or given to me as a donation. So many great stories to be shared with young readers in our community.

What I have always loved about books is that great stories can be shared. Even worn and tattered books come alive at bedtime or story time for young readers. I have fond memories of my own Mother reading me well-worn books passed down in the family. Some of my favorites included Dr. Seuss stories. Told again and again, they only seemed to get better with each reading.

Head Start costs nothing for qualifying families. The goal is to get children ready to learn and succeed in school. I thought this Big Help Book Drive was the perfect fit because they both are trying to help low-income students succeed.

So simple, isn't it?

So simple I hope you will be encouraged to collect books for children in your community. How many can you collect? And where would you donate your books?

In the end we had 63 books for young children. Many were favorites of ours, some new, but I am sure all will be loved and appreciated. Every book can help, so let's all get involved and make sure there are books available for everyone.

Check out the Champions for Kids site for suggestions and inspiration. Be sure to help out their goal by letting them know if you donate books. Also follow them on Twitter and Facebook to see all the good being done.

Also check out their partner, Nickelodeon on Twitter and Facebook because their beloved characters go a long way to inspire children to read their stories.

Now what are you waiting for? Go see how many books you can collect!

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids. #NickCFK #CBias. All opinions are entirely my own.

Preparing to Share the Love - Our #NickCFK Book Drive

Every night around 8pm, you can find our family curled up around a book. It is a tradition we began with the kids when my son was small and could barely sit still long enough for me to get through a page.

Though the seeds for this tradition were planted way back when I was expecting. Family and friends gifted me with several lovely stories to start our collection before he was even born. Every year since on birthdays the great grandparents add to our collection and I am always on the search for new titles to add as well. You could say we place a great value on reading and books in our home.

Did you know:

• 61% of low-income families have no books for children in their homes, and more than 80% of the preschool and after-school programs serving at-risk children have no books at all. 
• Approximately 8.7 million fourth through twelfth grade students struggle with required reading and writing tasks in school. For many adolescent students, ongoing difficulties with reading and writing figure prominently in the decision to drop out of school.  

So here is September's SIMPLE Service Project:

I am so excited to be working with Champions for Kids again through #CBias. This month is an amazing cause and such a simple one to get involved with. Nickelodeon's Big Help Book Drive (#NickCFK)  is a call to action for people in communities across the country to help get books into the hands of young readers.

This project is in two parts. I took my family to our local Walmart to purchase several Nickelodeon books to start my book drive with. I loaded up my family and asked my children to help choose books to give away. My children have several favorite Nickelodeon characters, so I knew this would be easy!

Before shopping I check both the Champions for Kids site and Walmart.com to get an idea of what I needed to pick up. Our store listed a huge selection of books in-store. But when we arrived at our local Walmart there were many fewer titles on the shelves.

My kids were looking for their favorite faces and we went through the stacks of books. There were some other great titles available, too. Even some classics that are already on our own shelves.

Check out our complete shopping trip in my Google+ album. We did find a few Dora books and one about my daughter's favorite, Olivia. I remembered all the fun titles I saw on the site and wanted to add a few more to our collection pile.

If you have ever shopped on Walmart's site you know how many great options there are. I immediately thought of their Site to store option for some of the books I wanted. After checking arrival estimates, I went with the home shipping option. I was able to get 6 more books that will arrive before we make our final donation. 

The prices at Walmart were great! If you want to host your own book drive or make a donation to a worthy group in your area, be sure to check out the great prices and selection there. Most of the books I purchased were just over $3 each. 

So that is a total of 10 books to begin our project with. The kids and I are going to be going through their own shelves to select books to donate and I have already had a great response from our friends wanting to get involved as well.

I can't wait to see how many books we can collect and donate to our local Head Start Program. Our small rural community has a large number of children who qualify for added assistance in education, health care and social services.  I hope all these extra books will help those Pre-school and Kindergarten aged children discover a love of learning, reading and the value of enjoying a good book.

Connect with Champions for Kids on Facebook or through their twitter handle: @champions4kids
Connect with Nickelodeon on Facebook or through their twitter handle: @nickelodeontv

Does your family have any extra books your could donate? What local group would you donate to for a Big Help Book Drive? Share in the comments below. I would love to hear about anyone inspired to do their own SIMPLE Service Project this month. Remember, you could be one of millions to help CFK meet their goal of 20 million people by 2020!

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids. #NickCFK #CBias. All opinions are my own.

Time for Back to School Shopping - Let's #BagItForward

July is flying by and you might have noticed School Supplies are now lining the shelves!

My local Walmart is still putting up displays for eager students, teachers and parents, but it isn't too early to tell you about a great way to give back this time of year and a fabulous app to use while getting your little ones school ready.

Elmer's is again putting on the #BagItForward Program. I wasn't part of it last year, but my oldest is now Preschool age. I have blogged about the great Champions for Kids SIMPLE Service Projects before and this another great one to get involved with.

I remember how excited I was to go school supply shopping as a child, but not all children's families can afford to buy their students supplies. Elmer's Bag It Forward asks parents who can to buy 2 when they are out shopping this year and donate the extra to children in need.

I grabbed my little shoppers and we headed out in search of the quality school supplies they needed as well as items to donate. This project couldn't have been easier!

Our Walmart was full of requested school supplies at amazingly low prices! Towards the back of our store we found these bargain bins set up with most of the items being under $1!

You really can't beat glue sticks for 10 cents each.

My children adore any craft project that involves using glue, and at 50 cents each I grabbed some extra to stock up at home.

Elmer's also has a fun (and FREE) new app available called 1st Day app. Look for the QR code to download the app and more information at the display where you find your student's school supply lists. Our store had just finished setting up the display and they weren't stocked yet, but the QR code was there.

This is a really fun app because not only can you use it to arrange and share pictures of your child's 1st day of school, but for every photo uploaded Elmer's will donate one product to the Kids in Need Foundation.

It doesn't take long to download and you can begin snapping pics right through the app right away. You can also upload other images already on your phone to create albums to share with friends and family.

Available for both the iPhone and Android, it is a great way to save the moment and give back at the same time!

So we collected a variety of items needed for the upcoming school year for our "Bag it Forward Buddy". We also found a nice collapsible basket to put the items in. I thought his Mom might enjoy it. My son was so excited about the gift.

And if you are keeping track, we included Elmer's School Glue, Elmer's Glue Sticks, Elmer's Folding Foam Board (for our card) and Elmer's 3D Glitter Colors among the other supplies. You can catch our entire shopping trip in my Google+ album.

Then we went to work on a card to accompany our gift. I love that the #BagItForward Program encourages people to keep bagging it forward. I already spoke with our recipients Mom and what they don't need she will be passing on to her Mother-in-Law, who is a teacher always collecting supplies for her classes.

Our card said, You are our Hero for going back to super School! We decorated it with superhero stickers, crayon and put a "You've Been Bagged" page on the front.

Unfortunately our friends were away for the weekend, but it was a great chance to drop off our basket and leave them with a big surprise.

It is so easy to make some else's day, but this project also helped us. This was a real blessing for my son who has been having fears about going to school. By sharing supplies with an older student, a friend, he was able to replace those fears with anticipation and excitement.

What good could you spread if you also Bagged it Forward?

Stay in the loop andqconneb: with Elmer’s on Twitter  or on their Facebook page.

Get more #BagItForward ideas and inspiration on the Bag It Forward Pinterest Board.

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Elmer’s #BagItForward #CBias All opinions are my own.

From Chips to a Charitable Donation - Making the Switch

I posted a few weeks ago about the Jennie-O Make The Switch Challenge I was undertaking. Check out my post, "Making a Switch, a Sacrifice and Good Deeds". We decided to give our beloved salty snacks for greater causes, our health and to use the money saved to make a donation to our local Battered Person's Advocacy (BPA).

Honestly, I expected much more of a revolt from my kids. They didn't seem to miss the chips. We snacked on fruit, veggies and fruit juice popsicles instead.

Turkey is a great swap out for healthy meals and this was a great chance to show off how flavorful the Jennie-O lean turkey products are as well as how easy they are to use. I made several delicious meals using the ground turkey. I just subbed it in wherever I normally would use ground beef. There were many great options available at our store. You can see my shopping trip in my Google+ album.

One of our favorite meals is taco salad! Combined with all our favorite veggies and topped with browned turkey instead of beef, it was a huge hit.

When I was in high school I used to volunteer to help watch children while Moms met for the weekly BPA meeting. My idea was to provide platters of food for the attendants that were healthy and showed off the Jennie-O products.

I also created a spinach and turkey meatball for the occasion. The recipe was based on our family favorite, but I added in a few new flavors to spice it up!

Asian Turkey Meatballs

You Will Need:
1 pkg. of Jennie-O Ground Turkey
1 pkg. frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
2 Tbsp. diced onion
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp. fresh grated ginger
1 clove garlic
2 tsp. soy sauce

This recipe is so easy! Just throw all the ingredients in a big bowl and get in there and mix it up. Be sure to take off your rings first.

Then shape them.. I like to use my smallest cookie scoop to make an  hors d'oeuvres sized meatball.

Then I put a little oil in my largest cast iron skillet and heat it to medium. Keep an eye on the meatballs and turn them as needed to get a nice even browning.

These also go well with spaghetti, but they are just as good alone or with a little dip of marinara sauce.

With Jennie-O meatballs, turkey ham, cheese, crackers, fruit and juice. We are all set for a great meeting.

I am very proud of what our local BPA offers for our community. Many of the women have small children and leaving a bad situation isn't always easy. I am pretty sure the last thing on their minds is making healthy food choices. I just wanted to show everyone how easy it can be. This is a cause near and dear to my heart for personal reasons.

There is still plenty of time to get involved with this month's #JennieoCFK & Make the Switch. Check out the Champions for Kids website, connect with them on twitter and Facebook, and if you get involved in your community, I would love to hear about it!


*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #JennieOCFK #CBias #SocialFabric  All opinions are my own.

Getting our Community Playing - #OdwallaCFK

A few week's ago I told you about April's Champion's for Kids SIMPLE Service Project, the Odwalla "Game Day Challenge". I posted about "Our Family's Game Day Challenge - #OdwallaCFK" and am excited to give you an update on the project.


Older children may have organized sports and clubs they can join, but it is just as important for younger children to get out and get active. Hopefully being active and healthy at a young age will feed their interest for organized sports later on. I was looking for a group in our community that worked with children close to my kids' ages.  I decided on Head Start.  Check out our Google+ story of the trip.  I was amazed at all the great things a savvy Mom can find at Walmart to get kids active.

My children are ages 4 and 2. They love to run around outside and have fun!

So we selected items that were perfect for the target pre-school age of Head Start. On our shopping trip I let my children pick out items they would like to play with.

They chose:

• 2 Large bouncy balls
• 2 hula-hoops 
• Bubbles
• Sidewalk chalk
• Bat & Ball Set
• Extra Balls
• Tee Ball Tee
• Water Balloon Launcher & Water Balloons

 The Douglas County Head Start program, part of the non-profit UCAN, is a comprehensive pre-school program. It serves low income families and is provided at no cost for eligible families. The program helps get kids ready for school with a positive and respectful environment for everyone and entire family involvement.


The program takes place just down from where I grew up, my old neighborhood. Though I never attended Head Start I know people who have benefited from the program, both children and adults.

Our program is very active in the community and is visible at local parades and events. Students blossom with the help and preparation provided but there are many barriers for the students and health and nutrition are one.

This project was a lot of fun for my family. It gave us the chance to think about how to get other children in our community active and healthy. It was also the perfect opportunity to talk about these goals and values with my own children. We made a great collection of items perfect for inspiring fun and active habits in little kids.

I hope this will inspire others to give back to their community and join in the Champions for Kids program. You can learn more about how to get involved or read inspiring stories from others donating on Champions for Kids on Twitter and Facebook. Join in the conversation, start donating and help to make your community even better.

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for  Collective Bias™.   #CBias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.