A Special Opportunity to “Pay It Forward” with Campus Book Rentals

Disclosure: Campus Book Rentals gave me $25 to purchase buy school supplies, and a new backpack. I received no compensation for writing this post.

One of my all time favorite movies is Pay it Forward, so when Madame Deals Media and Campus Book Rentals gave me the opportunity to participate in their Pay it Forward campaign to provide school supplies to children in need, I jumped at the chance.

As participants, we had three assignments…

1. To take the $25 they gave me, and get a book bag and school supplies.

2. To identify a place or family where I could donate the bag, so it got to someone who really needed it.

3. Lastly, to share my experience with you. Hopefully, inspiring you and my other readers, to find a creative way to pay it forward in your own neighborhood.

So here is what we did and how we did it!

Since we wanted to get the most bang for our buck, we shopped around for the best possible deals. I went to grocery stores, national chains, and office supply stores. I asked a few of the managers if they could help me by donating extra supplies, so I could do more, but that wasn’t successful. We ended up buying supplies at 3 different stores, and I think we did a pretty good job! We spent a little more than our $25 budget, but it was a great experience that I am sure, we will do again, next year.

For $25, we were able to purchase a Pink Backpack, and fill it up with

• Crayola Crayons

• 3 Composition Book

• Tissues

• Hand Sanitizer

• Mechanical Pencils

• Glue

• Index Cards

• A Pencil Sharpener

• Pens

• A Pencil Case

• 3 Composition Books

• 4 Folders

• Erasers

• 4 Spiral Bound Notebooks

• 2 packs of Loose Leaf Notebook Paper

When we filled up the backpack, I remembered the local coffee shop was collecting supplies for City Year, so originally my plan was to drop the bag off there. When I went to drop the bag off at the coffee shop, I knew that this bag belonged somewhere else, the hospital.

When I was in graduate school, I did an internship at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. It was an experience that I will never forget. Occasionally, people would bring things to the hospital for the kids, and it really brightened their day, or there were times when a parent had a sick child there, and they didn’t want to leave their side, and/or didn’t have the resources to eat or purchase some of the things they needed for themselves or the other children in the family because they weren’t working, or because of the crisis that they were managing at the hospital, so when things were made available to them, they really appreciated it.

Every day a family somewhere has a similar experience, something unexpected happens, and they have to figure out how to put the pieces back together. So, I knew this was a great place for our bag. I walked into the hospital and asked to speak to someone from the staff, who would be able to guide me in the right direction. The security staff pointed me to guest services. After speaking to a man from their staff, and telling him that I wanted to make sure it reached a family who really needed it. He took the bag, and promised to get it into the hands of someone who needed it.

Mission Accomplished!

I am very thankful that Madame Deals and Campus Book Rentals did this project, and allowed me to participate. It was a great to do something like this for a family in need. Although I may never know who received the bookbag, it feels great to know that what we did will help someone else, in their time of need. Perhaps after reading this story, you will find a way to do this where you live. It would be great to see people all over the country pay it forward, doing random acts of kindness in the communities where they work and live!

Mission Accomplished!

About the Sponsor:

Campus Book Rentals is a company that offers students up to 90% off their textbooks! It not only allows students to save money, it helps students make money by providing services for students to rent out their textbooks to other students. Campus Book Rentals has been around since 2007, and continues to help students live a more affordable life. Campus Book Rentals is proud to sponsor such an amazing pay it forward event!