Wayne Martin good morning to you, Wayne. I never cease to be amazed at the level of poverty in our area, despite all the wealth in the Charlotte region.

Barbara Todaro hi Barbara... the need is constant... good economy or bad... this is the 12th year of the drive and we had high poverty neighborhood schools back then and even before then in all kinds of economic cycles. People's inability to break the poverty cycle cuts across more factors, I think, than just the economy. Not that I know how to fix it... 

Lise Howe good morning, Lise. I post about this every year and the posts always get a ton of traffic. Unfortunately, no way to measure if anyone responds and contributes, but I'm hopeful. Happy weekend to you!

Sally K. & David L. Hanson good morning, Sally... certainly a cause that should touch everyone's heart!

Ron and Alexandra Seigel hi Alexandra... I appreciate the point about waiting... of course, now I've been waiting for just one person to contact me after almost eight years here! I am definitely not holding my breath, however!  And at this stage of my life, I doubt I have another eight years left to wait! I have had people contact me after being "dripped" from my website for many years... but never as a result of anything I posted here.

Grant Schneider Classroom Central is an amazing organization. We have so many teachers who go out of pocket each year up to $1,000 to buy school supplies for their students... it's tragic really that this needs to be done.

Brian England hi Brian... this is typically a fairly successful drive each year. And raising awareness for the need and about Classroom Central is half the battle!

Lawrence "Larry" & Sheila Agranoff. Cell: 631-805-4400 hi Sheila and Larry... it's very sad that so many children are at risk of going without and whose education is compromised from day one.

Michael Jacobs hi Michael... and for some reason that need never seems to diminish... in fact it increases. The Color the Park drive is a great way to raise money and awareness for Classroom Central, whose volunteers do an amazing job getting supplies to the poorest schools in our area.

Anita Clark thanks, Anita. We never really saw these kinds of school supply drives in NYC... but my eyes were really opened when we moved to Charlotte about how great the need is.

Joan Cox hi Joan... to me, it feels as if the school year just ended and now it's about to start again! The summer has just flown by. Probably the kids think so, as well.

Roy Kelley hi Roy... this is such an important cause to help children start off their school year "right." And I'm always amazed how great the need is.

George Souto hi George... Ballantyne Corporate Park is the largest such park in the nation so we have lots of people who work there... hopefully, everyone will contribute a little for a big total at the end.

Francine Viola thanks, Francine. The need to help our poverty schools here is very great... so I post about this Classroom Central drive every year. I figure every little bit of extra awareness helps.

Kathy Streib hi Kathy... we have all kinds of school supply drives all over the region... this Color the Park drive is one of the largest and I try to highlight it every year as the need seems to never diminish.

Debb Janes EcoBroker and Bernie Stea JD hi Debb... and all those things for school from supplies to clothing don't get cheaper as time goes on. At least when I went to school, my brother and I wore uniforms, so the budget for clothes was more limited.

Steve and Eleanor Thorne it's amazing how far a dollar stretches... I see the same in how our food pantries manage to provide provisions.