Lakeshore’s Hollywood Elementary has a little something extra for supplies. Farmers Insurance agent Christopher Thompson gave the school a $2,000 grant this morning during a staff meeting, surprising everyone. He explains how it came to be.
“I got an email about a month ago that I was one of 10 chosen across the country, and we’ve got around 6,000 agents, so it was kind of neat. They said ‘you get a $2,000 grant and can do whatever you want with it’ and I immediately thought of educators,” said Thompson. He says it took some back and forth to get cleared to donate the money to an entire school instead of just one teacher, which he said would be impossible to pick.
Principal Natalie Macerata says they’ve started building a closet of clothes for students in need and recently received a grant for a washer and dryer, so there are supplies needed for that initiative along with a list of standard classroom items like paper, pencils, Post-It notes and more.
“Anything we can put this towards,” said Macerata. “I’m sure the staff may have great ideas, too. I want to consult with them as well about what do you think our focus should be. I have ideas, but they also have great ideas, too. So we’ll get together as a staff and figure that out.”
Thompson only let the school secretary in on the secret before making the announcement. Tears of joy were shed at the surprise, and Macerata says on a scale of 1 to 10, the surprise maxed out at a 10.
