Last week I had the privilege of co-hosting an amazing event here in Denver where we nominated a teacher to win a HUGE box of donated classroom supplies. I will be announcing the winner of that contest here shortly but wanted to share another great contest for a local teacher from A Day Made Better! As a former 4th grade teacher, it is really important to me that people realize just what a problem this is. There are teachers that are having to spend their very small paychecks just to buy Kleenex for their classrooms. It is CRAZY!

Did you know teachers spend an average of $1200 of their own money on classroom supplies each year? That’s $4 billion annually! That’s why OfficeMax joined with Adopt-A-Classroom to create “A Day Made Better“—a national cause event founded to erase teacher-funded classrooms. This year, “A Day Made Better” will take place on October 6 where 1,000 teachers will be surprised in their classrooms each with $1,000 worth of essential supplies from OfficeMax. That’s more than one million dollars donated to help teachers! Principals at needy schools nominated the teachers for demonstrating dedication, innovation, and passion.

To pay-it-forward, OfficeMax and Mom It Forward have teamed up to create awareness about the issue of teacher-funded classrooms and to give you the opportunity to get involved and help a teacher in your community on behalf of the “A Day Made Better.” Here’s how…

Simply nominate a teacher of your choice to win this giveaway by following the entry requirements. Be sure to check out the prize and criteria!

Prize

One exceptional teacher will receive a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR gift card to OfficeMax. This can go a long way when it comes to classroom supplies!

Criteria

This is a giveaway that is meant to be given away. What does that mean? You get to nominate a teacher by sharing why this person is exceptional and deserving of this giveaway. The best part, every story told helps raise awareness in an effort to erase teacher-funded classrooms. The winning teacher will be chosen based on the following criteria, so be sure to tell us why your teacher is most deserving:

• Dedication: does everything in his/her power to deliver the best possible education for his/her students.
• Innovation: thinks outside the box and engages his/her students through creative learning activities & programs.
• Passion: expresses a genuine passion for education and shares this enthusiasm in the classroom.
• Need: demonstrates a need for essential classroom supplies.

Entry Requirements

To enter your teacher, you are required to do two things.

1. Nominate them through a blog post, a comment here or on Whrrl.

Leave me a comment with the teacher you are nominating and why. Please give us much detail about why the teacher deserves to win in your comment!

OR
Write a post on your blog.

• You can include photos, video, etc. but please stay under 400 words or 3 minutes.
• Please include these links: http://adaymadebetter.com or @adaymadebetter.
• Include a link to your post in the comments section.

OR
Create a story on Whrrl.com.

• Go to our custom Whrrl page at http://whrrl.com/search?q=omx, click “Start A Story” and upload photos and text about why your teacher is most deserving.
• Be sure to include the #omx hashtag in the text of your story.
• Post a link to your Whrrl story in the comments section.

You can see the story of the event I held here:

2. Post these messages on Facebook and/or Twitter.

• Teachers spend avg $1200 of own $$ on school supplies annually! Help erase teacher-funded classrooms. http://bit.ly/3VUNvC PLS RT #omx
• Nominate a teacher 2 win $100 in OfficeMax classroom supplies. Enter here: PUT YOUR POST URL HERE PLS RT #omx
• Join the “A Day Made Better” movement to end teacher-funded classrooms at http://bit.ly/UJ3LF #omx

More than 30 sites are participating in this campaign between now and Sunday, October 4. Visit http://momitforward.com for a list of all the giveaways! You may enter a different teacher on every site, but you may only win once!

Thanks so much for helping pay-it-forward to teachers in your community! Please join us on Tuesdays, September 22 and 29 from 9 to 11 pm ET for Girls Night Out (#gno) on Twitter if you’d like to meet the team behind the cause: @officemax, @adaymadebetter and @Adopt_Classroom. Hope to see you there!

Fine Print

Moving to a new city is never easy and it has been a big adjustment for me. I feel like I am finally fitting in though and starting to make some new friends. I stepped up in the beginning of the year to become the president of Mom It Forward Colorado which is an initiative very close to my heart. It is all about MOM as a verb and strengthening mom to enable her to move forward and strengthen her community and the world~changing the world one mom at a time! Through Mom It Forward I am meeting an amazing group of women!

Last Thursday Mom It Forward Colorado teamed up with the also ever amazing Mile High Mamas to throw our second event here! We choose to support A Day Made Better with Office Max which is a campaign to end teacher funded classrooms. A cause very close to my heart! Office Max did some research and found that teachers spend roughly $1200 a year of their own money in their classroom. Honestly, I think that is a pretty low number they found. I can guarantee I spent more and it is just WRONG. Teachers barely make enough to survive but to then turn around and spend what little they have in their classrooms is just tragic. That is why I love, love, love being a Max Mom and getting to help some local Denver teachers through A Day Made Better. At the party we asked our guests to nominate a deserving teacher and to bring some school supplies for our gigantor box (see me in it in the story). Amber or Mile High Mamas and I will be delivering that box to one of those teachers with $1000 gift card for school supplies soon.

But it doesn’t stop there, I will also be taking nominations on my blog starting Sept. 20th for more deserving teachers so watch this space for more info!

I had an amazing time and need to thank our sponsors! The Warwick Denver could not have been more gracious in providing us with the space, food and drink and not to mention this amazing man Saman who made sure we were well pampered through the night! Litzy PR sent us the most amazing toy baskets to raffle off from Nerf, Shred Sled, Strawberry Shortcake and more. Start Poken got 4 more of us connected with the ever cool Poken. Hostess sent us YUMMY cupcakes and some very sought after twinkie recipe books. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Zing Zang Zoom gave us a family four pack of tickets and the sweetest girl I got the pleasure of meeting, Lori at Guessing All The Way also sponsored 4 tickets. Wet Ones rounded out the swag with a way for us to clean up!

Some of the more than 60 powerful social media moms in Colorado are also blogging about the event so head over and check them out too!

Crunchy Domestic Goddess-

Mama Bird

and of course, Mile High Mamas

If you blog about the event, leave me the link in the comments!

Thanks to all for A Day Made Better and for making me feel more at home in Colorado!