Black mothers raise in excess of $8K for children’s school

By Rolling Out
Feb 12, 2013
7:42 am

Greenforest’s Box Tops Moms, a team of four fantastic ladies working hard for their school: Sherlonda Martin, Ursala Maddox, Rhonda Worthem and Mary Chatmon.

The Box Tops for Education program, created by General Mills, is an easy way for community members to support schools. Each participating brand carries a “Box Top” coupon worth 10 cents to a school, and unrestricted funds earned by submitting the Box Tops to General Mills can be used to purchase books, school supplies, playground equipment, teacher training, computers, etc. With Box Tops for Education, parents and the community-at-large can make a real difference in our children’s education.

Four moms in Decatur, Ga, decided to use this program to their advantage and raised more than $8,000 for their children’s school, Greenforest-McCalep Christian Academy Center. The academy is a private school of 500 students, ages 6 weeks to 12th grade. The Box Tops moms — who all work full time in addition to their Box Tops roles — are each responsible for a different section of the school. They work together as a team and meet once a month to create a strategies, plan and organize contests. The funds earned are being used to purchase 30 computer monitors for teachers and projectors for each of the classroom’s smart boards.

“When I took this on I realized the challenge was bigger than I could do on my own. You see the excitement build, you see other parents get excited; you see how it impacts the teachers and the school as a whole. The kids see us as the Box Tops Moms – they don’t know our names, but they know us for our work and what we do at the school. That is rewarding,” stated Sherlonda Martin.

BET Networks presented Box Tops for Education Town Hall, which took place inside the Cosby Auditorium on the campus of Spelman College onJan. 24, 2013. The event was sponsored by Walmart and Honey Nut Cheerios. BET’s “Real Husbands of Hollywood” star Boris Kodjoe, his wife, actress Nicole Ari Parker was attendance, as well as Spelman College president Dr. Beverly Tatum and Box Tops brand manage, Tommy Hillman. MSNBC contributor Jeff Johnson served as the moderator. The entire conversation premiered on BET.com on Feb. 4 and will available throughout Black History Month.

The city of Atlanta also presented a proclamation declaring Jan. 24 as Box Tops for Education Day.