Every student in Aikin Elementary School’s Kindergarten through fourth grade will receive their own Crayola Colors of the World box of crayons thanks to several members of the community after Madison McDowell shared on social media her goal of donating a box to each of her students this year.
“In less than 12 hours we raised enough money to supply every first grader at my school – nine classes, 200+ students – with their very own Crayola Colors of the World box of crayons,” she shared on social media. “Then, at the end of the first day, Joe (Matthews) at Paris Cellphone Repair reached out to me wanting to donate a box to every student in the first grade.”
McDowell said they then came up with a plan because they ran our of first-grade students.
“I wanted to go beyond first grade and supply every student in (Kindergarten) with their own box – nine more classes,” she said. “I simply wanted to supply my class with a community basket of people colors, colors that would reflect themselves, and the Lord saw fit to supply more.”
McDowell said she began this because her students regularly draw out and tell personal stories through “All-About-Me” assignments.
“What do you say to a six year old who says, ‘but there is no ‘me’ color in my box? What do I use?’” she said. “We should allow them the same opportunity to create and express themselves because, is feeling included, loved, and important not a base which helps build a child willing to learn??”
McDowell said they now have more than 1,340 boxes of crayons to hand out to students. She said the idea originally came from Kallie Machino, who she went to college with who did something similar in 2020, and “it turned into something way bigger than I ever could have imagined.
“This has shown me the type of world people want to live in – a world where we help, love, include, support, provide,” she said. “I haven’t stopped crying. Many of you have told me you’ve cried. There is something so very special about teaching. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”
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