Teachers at J.D. Lever Elementary School received $100 gift cards from The Gifting Tree Foundation Thursday morning.
“We just felt like it would be nice to give back to them, to help supply their classrooms and needs for their students. We felt like this would be a good opportunity to give back to them,” said Danny Minolfo, a board member for the organization.
The Gifting Tree is an organization built by philanthropists who raise money and give back 100% of their funds to the community. This is their third year selecting a school in Aiken County to reward with this type of donation.
“We have several people that have teachers in their family that are on our board, we know that teachers tend to go above and beyond the call of duty and a lot of times it affects their pocket book,” Minolfo said.
Jennifer Minolfo is also a board member of The Gifting Tree Foundation and a fourth grade teacher at Millbrook Elementary School. She said the organization knows that teachers not only buy school supplies for their classrooms, but they also go to the grocery store to buy cookies, drinks, candies and other items to keep students engaged.
The Gifting Tree has given more than $50,000 back into community in the last two years, said Jennifer Minolfo. The organization usually hosts an annual oyster roast in March to raise money, but it was canceled due to COVID-19.
Thirty-five teachers received a gift card Thursday. Lauren O’Quin is a first-year teacher at J.D. Lever Elementary, and she said it feels “fantastic” to have received the gift card.
“Aiken County in general has done a fantastic job helping out first-year teachers with all kinds of donations I have received. I was already starting to spend my own money so this is going to reimburse me for the personal money I have already spent,” O’Quin said.
Read the full Aiken Standard article here.