From Left: Cheryl Price, Director of the Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative, Dr. Joenile Albert-Reese, School Principal, Pritzker Elementary School, Jerry Weissbuch, 6th grade teacher, Pritzker Elementary School, and Amanda Szaraz, School Counselor, Pritzker Elementary School.
Many low-income kids in Chicago can’t afford the long list of school supplies that need to be purchased at the start of the school year. Needed items range from the basics, such as notebooks and pens, to the more expensive, such as flash drives and calculators. As you can imagine, the price tag for these kinds of items can add up quickly, leaving many without. Not so for the needy students at A.N. Pritzker Elementary School, a pre-k –8th grade Chicago Public School in Wicker Park. The College of Law’s Pro Bono & Community Service Initiative (“PBCSI”) collected school supplies throughout the month of September to ensure that all students at Pritzker had the materials they needed to be prepared for school. PBCSI donated spiral notebooks, flash drives, pens, three-hole punches, folders, marble composition books, index cards, erasers, and calculators.
PBCSI Student Coordinator Rebecca Birger coordinated the drive, with a focus on getting student organizations involved. Ms. Birger was impressed with the number of student organizations that collected items for the drive. They included Law Review, the National Lawyers Guild, the Black Law Student Association, the Latino Law Student Association, Phi Alpha Delta, Outlaws, the Asian-Pacific American Law Student Association, and the Student Bar Association. According to Ms. Birger: “The school supply drive shows DePaul students are truly committed to improving the community. We had such a strong showing from so many organizations because our students are dedicated to helping others.”
Students, faculty, staff and alumni also donated to the school supply drive. Additionally, for the second year in a row, Lexis Nexis generously donated a box of flash drives.
Cheryl Price, Director of PBCSI, delivered the school supplies to Pritzker on October 5. Pritzker’s School Counselor, Amanda Szaraz, explained that the supplies would be put to good use, as Pritzker has a large population of homeless students from nearby shelters. Ms. Price also understands the importance of the donation: “These supplies have an immediate positive impact because they mean students can come to school prepared, without having to worry about having enough money to buy what is required. The College of Law community enjoys helping students in this way and looks forward to donating needed supplies for years to come.”
To find out more about PBCSI and/or its annual school supply drive for Pritzker Elementary School, contact PBCSI Director, Cheryl Price, at cprice13@depaul.edu.
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