Stevenson students donate school supplies to CPS school

Extending a helping hand - or four hands in this case - was on the minds of both Nandhini Nair, 17, and Caroline Mazursarocka, 18, a junior and a senior, respectively, at Stevenson High School, when they brainstormed an idea to help their fellow pupils at the Chicago Public Schools.

Both Nair and Mazursarocka were already part of The Girls Unlimited Education nonprofit organization, and decided to expand on an idea they had to collect school supplies and deliver them to students at Chicago Public Schools.

Nair heard on the news that CPS students heading back to class lacked basic resources to go back to school. She and Mazursarocka recognized their own privileges as part of Stevenson High School and their community, and wanted to make others feel the same.

"To succeed academically," Nair said.

Their initial goal was 100 of each item and $1,000 in monetary donations. In total, Nair and Mazursarocka raised more than $2,800 worth of materials in both monetary and physical donations that consisted of over 500 notebooks, folders, pencils, masks, binders and more donated to the John Spry Elementary School.

"It ended up, after doing our total calculations, to about $2,800 worth of materials. It was pretty exciting," Nair said. "We are thinking about not doing school supplies this next time. We might start focusing on masks, hand sanitizers, etc. It's what students need, but they are on the pricey side."

They reached out to anchor stores like Home Depot, which donated 100 masks; Target, which donated 100 pencils and 100 notebooks; and Office Max, which supplied 100 folders.

John Spry Elementary School Principal Laura Garcia-Graham and Assistant Principal Pablo Guzman were thrilled about Nair and Mazursarocka's initiative.

"They started going through boxes to see what we had brought them," Nair said.

"This success would lead to other future projects," she added. "This went past our expectations, 100 percent."