Nonprofit invites Madison County teachers to shop free supplies for new school year

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — Summer is in full swing, but as families are busy taking vacations and enjoying a break from school, teachers are already preparing for the start of the next school year.

On Monday, Free 2 Teach welcomed teachers in for their first shopping day ahead of the new school year.

Free 2 Teach is a nonprofit school supply store that allows teachers to “shop” for supplies. It is available for teachers in any of the three public school systems in Madison County: Huntsville City Schools, Madison City Schools, & the Madison County School System.

News 19 caught up with Melva Tignor, a first-grade teacher at Heritage Elementary School, while she was shopping. Tignor was filling her cart with lots of new books for her students.

She said one of the most rewarding parts of teaching first grade is watching students learn how to read.

“The moment you see them and they have this face of like ‘I can read, I can do this’, it just makes me feel so great to be able to see that,” Tignor said.

Tignor is heading into her seventh year of teaching with Madison City Schools, and she said being able to shop for supplies at Free 2 Teach each year has been a huge blessing. She called it a relief to have the supplies needed for her classroom and to ensure each child is on the same playing field.

“Just being able to say [to parents] ‘no, I have the crayons, don’t worry about it’, it just takes that stress off the parents and it helps us as well because things are expensive,” she said.

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Tignor told News 19 that her aunt is a teacher in New York, and she was shocked to hear about Free 2 Teach.

“She was like, that is incredible to have that opportunity because there’s other places don’t have that,” Tignor said. “It’s just so helpful when you’re starting your school year to be able to do this.”

News 19 spoke to another teacher who was shopping. He had recently relocated to Alabama after teaching in Florida for many years.

“We had something like this in Florida but it was nothing of this caliber,” he said.

Free 2 Teach Executive Director, Alison Kling, said it is a joy to be able to help teachers and students in the community. However, she said demand is higher than ever.

“We’re seeing more teachers coming that may have just used to throw a couple of boxes of crayons when they were at the grocery store, now they’re coming to us for those basics,” Kling said.

Free 2 Teach will welcome teachers in to shop every other day for the next three weeks. They anticipate helping more than 1,000 local teachers prepare for the upcoming school year.

To shop at Free 2 Teach, teachers must register online and sign up for a time. Teachers can click here to learn more.

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