About Push for Pencils

Push for Pencils is a community-wide supply drive to benefit local kids in need. During the drive, participating partners collect school supplies and financial donations for KidSmart.

Businesses, organizations and community groups throughout the St. Louis area host drives from August 1 - 31. The collected supplies are distributed to local children through KidSmart’s Free Educational Supply Store. Last year’s Push for Pencils collected more than 500,000 supplies along with $50,000 for local school children in need.

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Why Join the Push for Pencils in St. Louis?

Six years ago, Armond was a fifth grade student at Cote Brilliante Elementary School. Armond wrote a letter to KidSmart explaining that he had never had his own notebook. His teacher would often distribute paper to the students by tearing out sheets from a pad. Armond wrote that although sharing was nice, he would really like a notebook of his own because all of his paper was gone.

Sadly, there are 90,000 area children just like Armond who face the reality of trying to learn without basic supplies like paper and pencils. KidSmart—Tools for Learning is a local nonprofit organization that operates a free educational supply store to help kids like Armond succeed in school. Since opening in 2002, KidSmart has distributed nearly $8 million in school supplies to more than 40,000 local kids in need.

There are still 40,000 children in St. Louis who need our help. Studies show that students with proper supplies have a better chance of succeeding in school. Every child deserves to start the school year ready to learn.

Push for Pencils will help replenish the KidSmart Free Store for the start of the school year and provide thousands of children with the tools they need for success in the classroom. With the help of the St. Louis community, a notebook for each child in need can be just the beginning.