From Garage to Giving

How Treasures 4 Teachers supports Arizona classrooms 

A shoe for a pencil. That’s what Barbara Blalock witnessed while working at the Valley of the Sun YMCA — a 7-year-old student trading her shoe to borrow a pencil from her teacher. The teacher explained to Blalock that she didn’t have enough pencils and knew she would get her pencil back because the student wouldn’t leave without her shoe. 

Determined to address the critical lack of school supplies, Blalock reached out to a local company, asking if they had any surplus to donate. The company agreed, and Blalock gathered the supplies, stored them in her garage and distributed them to preschools. 

As additional companies donated their surplus
supplies, it was no longer feasible for Blalock to store them in her garage. Through tireless efforts and determination, she founded a reusable resource center for Arizona teachers called Treasures 4 Teachers, which now serves 8,000 educators and impacts 250,000 students each year.

The nonprofit’s work has been anything but textbook in the more than two decades since it began. Blalock has retired as founder and executive director, and Joy Klein began leading T4T a year ago. “I was drawn to this role because it was education-based and also had the sustainability component,” Klein said. “I am a courageous lady, and it is exciting to reimagine and take the organization to its next level.”

That next level for T4T includes collaborating with other nonprofits and serving as a community connector. In partnership with Restore Arts, an organization that reconditions donated musical instruments, instruments are sold at T4T, with each organization equally sharing the profits. 

AZ StRUT, a nonprofit specializing in technology refurbishment and electronic recycling, rents an adjacent suite from T4T. This benefits both organizations — providing T4T with additional revenue while giving AZ StRUT much-needed space to expand its operations. The partnership also streamlines donations, making it easy for visitors dropping off classroom supplies at T4T to also recycle electronics with AZ StRUT. 

“AZ StRUT already worked with students and teachers, and it feels like a natural connection,” Klein said. “I’m excited about upping our recycling game. I think we can learn a lot from them.”

T4T recently began hosting quarterly creative workshops called “Let’s Make Stuff.” The first event, held in partnership with Restore Arts, transformed broken violins into artistic canvases. “It’s taking something and reimagining it. The second life of that violin will be a conversation piece,” Klein said. “It is amazing when a group of individuals come together. Community is what we need more than ever right now.”

While embarking on new approaches to building a collaborative community, T4T’s purpose remains two-fold. On average, teachers spend $500 to $1,500 from their own pocket to purchase supplies for their classrooms every year. As a member-based nonprofit, educators pay a $35 annual fee, giving them access to T4T’s 10,000-square-foot resource center in Tempe, where they can shop for free and low-cost classroom materials, art supplies, books and office essentials, saving teachers money. Sustainability is also a focus, with more than 3 million cubic feet of items diverted from the landfill and redirected to T4T’s resource center or its Treasure Box Thrift store.

“We love to starve a landfill,” Klein said. “Office supplies now live at T4T until a teacher needs them. We want to make sure teachers see us as a resource in a world where they are often asked to do so much with so little.”

Klein’s goal moving forward is to ensure T4T has the quantities of essential supplies educators need available year-round. Members are surveyed twice a year so the organization can keep a pulse on desired items, and their feedback guides T4T in being responsive to how the world continues to change for educators.

Klein said she’s inspired by the simple, everyday generosity she sees from the community. “I love that there’s someone in our community who finishes a Kleenex box, puts it aside and takes time out of their day to drop it off because a teacher needs it for their craft project of making musical instruments,” she said. “There’s such a beautiful through line that inspires us in the nonprofit sector to get up and do what we do every single day.”

To learn more, visit treasures4teachers.org.