Nonprofit organization Treasure 4 Teachers, Inc. advocates assisting teachers with innovative and unique items at a fraction of the cost they normally would spend to provide students with needed classroom materials.

After five years of preparation, T4T launched a Reusable Resource Center for educators at 2127 S. Priest Drive, #406, to facilitate the needs of teachers who spend up to one-third of their salaries to purchase items needed for classrooms. T4T helps by rescuing items that would otherwise be discarded in valley landfills by local companies and manufacturers. T4T has diverted more than 80,000 cubic feet of discarded materials from the landfills into the hands of teachers and children.

We are not taking about cardboard tubes, egg cartons, and milk cartons, we are talking about binders, markers, folders, pens and pencils, file trays, paper and so much more,°® says Barbara Blalock, executive director of T4T.

Educators who visit T4T also have access to a large resource library and free use of equipment such as die-cut machines, bookbinding and laminating machines.  

A nonprofit, all-volunteer organization, T4T currently serves more than 600 teaching professionals ranging from the home schooled, child care, elementary, middle and high schools, charter schools, colleges, religious organization and many other non-profits.

T4T also donates materials and services to homeless children and families through programs such as CASS Dental Services, Arizona State University Adopt-A-Family Program and Community Interfaith Ministries of the east valley (CIM).

For more information about Treasures for Teachers, call 480-751-1122.