Donna D

Communication! We use email, our intranet and post flyers at all locations. And we use every opportunity to mention the drive (i.e. at employee meetings). We keep the team up-to-date on how many pencils have been collected, by what teams, etc.

We try to make if fun for our employees while educating them with the purpose of Kidsmart. We usually create teams made up of all the employees and each item they bring in has a point value, some are positive points some are negative points, each team is usually color coded and has a collection box set up with their team color displayed. The put the positive point value items in their box and negative point values in opposing team boxes, we tally the points at the end of each week to let the teams know how they are doing. At the end of the drive the winning team gets lunch. It gets really competitive between some of the teams.

Jolene F

This year in addition to the contest we are planning a back to school month where we are going to have employees bring in school pictures, year books and possibly do a brown bag lunch for the employees. We will have a different fun activity each week of the drive. We are still in the planning stages at this time.

We are also going to place on our bulletin boards each Monday the sale flyers from the Sunday paper to let everyone know what supplies are on sale where to help make their shopping easier.

Jenny H

Communicate, communicate, communicate...and we designated items for each of our locations/regions. For example, Clayton employees were to bring paper/notebooks (too hard to get those from place to place & all items end up in Clayton anyway), West region (glue), South (crayons), Central (pencils), etc. This gave employees something to focus on while shopping for supplies. That’s not to say that we didn’t receive supplies other than the ones requested, but it did simplify things.

We also have a strong Community Service Committee and they are the ones who get information down in the trenches. The Push for Pencils chair sends initial info to the committee reps (one in every location and floor in Clayton) and they let the employees at their location know. We do not promote this as a customer participation event, but boxes are visible and some donations may come from outside.

Donna D

We don’t really use a name beyond Push for Pencils. However, we challenge the team leaders to come up with names for the individual teams. It’s amazing how creative the teams have gotten. (Our team names have included The Grateful Lead, Write Wing, and Get the Lead Out.) We do have a name though for when we go pick up the pencils... it’s the Great Pencil Pick-up!

Jenny H

We just call it our annual School Supplies Drive. We’ve been participating for a long time and Push for Pencils was designated after we started.

Donna D

We simply ask the team leaders to keep their pencils until the drive is over – but we ask them to give us counts so we can publish up-to-date statistics. At the smaller locations, some of the Team Leaders will create their own collection box and decorate it, etc., but mostly, the leaders just keep their donated items in their office/cubicle. However, we’d like to expand the drive this year and put some sort of collection boxes in our lobbies and ask customers to donate.

Jolene F

We use the boxes that Kidsmart provides. The boxes are team coded and set up in a central location .

Jenny H

Just boxes in our locations. Collection points were noted with a colored piece of paper on the box promoting the drive and what we were asking them to collect.

Donna D

We created some things ourselves using the Push for Pencils logo from the site when needed – and we used some of the materials provided by KidSmart.

To be successful, I really think you need, at a minimum:

• Weekly emails to remind the team.
• We also used the Mouse Story to drive home that kids not having pencils or the proper school supplies IS something that we all need to be concerned about and be motivated to make a difference.
• We also use the Nestle Crunch bars KidSmart provides and we attach those to the pay stubs with a reminder that the drive is approaching, etc.

Jolene F

We use the marketing materials provided by KidSmart and make our own point values for the items. We begin placing the posters a week or so before the drive all around the office and break room.

Jenny H

Flyers are distributed to our Community Service reps and posters are given to all of them for posting in their locations. Communication is interoffice mailed and emailed a week before the drive starts and reminders are sent periodically during that time. I’m not the official chair for the bank any longer and the person who did it last year (my assistant) is no longer here. So, I don’t really have specifics on this...but I do know reminders are sent when there is a week left, a day left, etc. We also sent special reminders related to tax-free weekend to encourage shopping.

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