But a few months later, Elisabeth Milich said she received what seemed to be an unbelievable offer from a stranger in New York City: He would pay for the snacks and supplies she and her husband had been buying for her students with their own money.
“I thought it was a one-time thing,” Milich said Thursday.
Instead, the man, Ben Adam, has since supplied her classroom at Whispering Wind Academy with colored pencils, paper clips, books, crackers and big bags of Hershey’s Kisses for two semesters. He has also bought a butterfly farm for another teacher in Phoenix, and supplies for four other classrooms in the Phoenix area.
He started a website last month called Classroom Giving, which allows other people the chance to give necessities to teachers.
Adam, a freelance audio producer who owns a real estate company, learned about Milich on the HBO show “Real Time With Bill Maher.” He said he was shocked that she was paying for cleaning supplies and paintbrushes on a salary of about $35,000.
“I was just really disappointed to see how little she makes,” Adam said.
For people like Milich, who are “doing the right thing,” he asked, “why do we nickel and dime them?”
Classroom Giving is best described as a gift registry for educators.
Teachers post a “wish list” of materials on Amazon, and donors can choose to buy a pack of markers or an entire semester’s worth of pencils and paper, which are delivered through the online retailer. So far about a dozen teachers in Arizona have received supplies, according to the site, and almost 20 teachers have made requests.
Since the local website azcentral wrote about Classroom Giving this week, Adam said he had received hundreds of messages from teachers in other states hoping to participate.
Milich said her class referred to Adam as “their New York friend,” and they sent him a thank you poster.
One of her students, Habiba, expressed gratitude.
“We are thankful because now we get to paint a lot and make lots of beautiful crafts,” she said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.