Crayons2Calculators (C2C) was founded by Duke students from the Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative, and aims to lessen the financial burden on Durham’s public schoolteachers who must often scrimp and save to provide basic school supplies for their students.

C2C began as the collaboration between then-seniors Lizzie de la Garza, Peter Golden, Lauren Guenther and Ben Silver who in fall of 2005 were enrolled in Tony Brown’s “Leadership, Development and Organizations” course and Steve Schewel, visiting assistant professor of public policy, who had written a proposal to be a client for the class. 

Then serving as vice chairman of the Durham School Board, Schewel saw first-hand the hurdles student and teachers faced in affording the essentials for the classroom. About half of Durham’s public school children come from families that live at or near the poverty line.

 “Teachers are spending a tremendous amount of their own money to provide students with school supplies,” Schewel said. “And there are many, many children in Durham, as there are throughout the nation, who just cannot afford enough school supplies for themselves. We wanted to try to contribute to filling that gap.”

The ELI program, which aims to motivate and equip students to tackle a pressing social issue in the community, set the wheels in motion for the creation of Crayons2Calculators and continued to support the project as it expanded.

What at first seemed like a pipe dream slowly became a reality as Schewel and the student team worked tirelessly beyond the fall semester to get Crayons2Calculators off the ground—from filing for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to fundraising to establishing community partners and contacts to assist with the project and turning Crayons2Calculators into a collaborative project with students from UNC.

All their hard work began to pay dividends when in April 2006, Crayons2Calculators hosted its inaugural event at E.K. Powe Elementary, giving 16 lucky teachers the opportunity to “shop” for free school supplies in the school’s cafeteria.

Since then, C2C has grown by leaps and bounds, hosting numerous supply giveaways and impacting the lives of countless teachers and students in Durham.

During the 2006-2007 school year, Crayons2Calculators was able to provide $9,000 worth of school supplies to 84 teachers across five elementary schools. During the 2007-2008 school year, the program grew dramatically, giving $60,000 to 562 teachers at 23 schools.

In April 2007, C2C celebrated the grand opening of a permanent supply warehouse on East Chapel Hill Street in downtown Durham with Mayor Bill Bell and DPS superintendent Carl Harris—a space they lease for $1 a year from the city.

“It’s really exciting to know that the community is behind the organization,” said Michael Althoff, a UNC senior who is the current president of Crayons2Calculators.  

Earlier this year, Crayons2Calculators celebrated another milestone in hiring their first paid executive director, Jenna Boitano, who works part-time for the nonprofit.

 “I think over and over again we hear from teachers that this is something that has a huge impact on them,” Boitano said. “They’re thrilled. They feel supported as teachers in the community but it also means so much for their students. Students feel all that more invested in their education.”

Althoff too said the impact Crayons2Calculators has had on the community is palpable. To date, the organization has been able to touch every single elementary school in Durham.

“The genuine appreciation—it’s so motivating and it’s been exciting to see that something that seems as simple as pens and pencils can really enrich the children’s education and make teachers feel like they’re really supported in the community,” he said.

Even in these tough economic times, Crayons2Calculators doesn’t plan on letting up anytime soon. The group’s long-term goal is to be able to meet the needs of all teachers in Durham, to continue to aggressively fundraise for their cause, and establish regular hours for the supply warehouse instead of just hosting periodic giveaways.

“Our mission is so simple—it’s very straightforward and uncomplicated,” Schewel said. “We want to provide for as many Durham schoolteachers as possible with free school supplies.”