A partnership between a shipping agency, a judge, the Santa Cruz County Office of Education and a prominent area family has netted county schools thousands of binders and other school supplies.
The supplies, stored at the old Wrigley Building off Mission Street in Santa Cruz, will be distributed to all 10 school districts in the county after they are unpackaged and organized by technical education students from Natural Bridges High School.
The unlikely partnership started with Judge Denine Guy, who presides over juvenile cases in the county. Guy’s cousin is a regional manager for California Overnight, a shipping company that has an agreement with some of its clients to take away extra supplies when an office closes. The company is not allowed to sell the items, but it can donate them. Guy arranged with her cousin to have the items donated to county schools.
To do that, though, the company needed to move 36 pallets of supplies from its warehouse, and the county office of education did not have sufficient storage.
With the education office’s Michael Paynter as a facilitator, trustee Vic Marani reached out to businessman William Ow, who offered the space in his family’s Santa Cruz warehouse. The supplies were shipped there earlier this month and are being sorted by three students from Natural Bridges who are paid for their work as vocational-type training.
After the supplies are sorted and catalogued, a list will go out to the 10 districts in the county, including Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley unified school districts, and each will have a chance to claim a portion of the supplies.
“This is how we have to move forward in times like this,” county schools trustee Aaron Hinde said. “I’m looking forward to more partnerships that bring business people around to the schools.”
Paynter dubbed the donation the “binder project,” because of the large number of binders. The Ow warehouse is also stocked with file folders, boxes of clips, paper and other office supplies.
“This was definitely a team effort,” he said. “Without the connections, storage and student workers, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”
At a glance
As an ongoing program, businessman William Ow has said his family’s Wrigley warehouse space will remain available to store donations from any other businesses that want to give to county schools.
For information: Michael Paynter, county office of education, 466-5600.
