Crayons to Classrooms Honored with Statewide Award for Supporting Art Education

On November 8th, Crayons to Classrooms (C2C) received the Distinguished Business for Art Education award from the Ohio Art Education Association (OAEA). After being nominated by a local art teacher, Mr. Matt Reynolds, C2C won this award for Ohio’s West Region and went on to win at the state level as well for the organization’s dedication to supporting art education.

The Teacher Resource Center’s shelves are always stocked with a variety of art products such as crayons, paint, glue, markers, art kits, fabric, and more. Art education is a luxury for many local students, and C2C’s vision is to ensure that every student has the school supplies needed to succeed.

Students who enter a classroom empty handed on the first day of school have a significant disadvantage to students who come wearing a backpack full of supplies. Students who don’t have crayons, pencils, notepads, or paintbrushes feel that they don’t yet have permission to be creative or to be an active participant in the learning process.

During the 2023-24 school year, C2C distributed $322,571.00 worth of arts and crafts supplies. In addition to these art distributions, the organization also gave teachers $89,354.15 in crayons, colored pencils, and markers. C2C has also hosted marker and oil paint set giveaways for art teachers.

“I have been able to get oil paint, markers, colored pencils, pencils, erasers, scissors, notebooks, rulers, fun prizes, backpacks, brushes, and so much more [from Crayons to Classrooms],” shares Mr. Matt Reynolds, Art Department Chair and studio art teacher at West Carrollton High School. “In my decade of teaching art at West Carrollton High School, no organization has had a bigger impact on my practice than Crayons to Classrooms.”

Whether a teacher is an art teacher, science teacher, or elementary teacher, they cannot effectively teach if their students aren’t prepared to learn. Because of this, Dayton teachers are constantly reaching into their own pockets to provide for their students in need. C2C seeks to remove this barrier from local teachers – when they shop at the Teacher Resource Center, teachers take an average of $769 in school supplies to their classrooms for free.