by Patty Blackburn

Tribune Staffer

When my first child was in elementary school, I was introduced to "Box Tops for Education." Once a month, several mothers would meet in an empty classroom and trim, count, and pack box tops. The box tops, worth 10 cents each, added up to hundreds of dollars. This money purchased dictionaries, calculators, copy paper, books, crayons, and various other supplies that the classroom needed.

To entice the students and teachers in turning in Box Tops, awards were given. The class that turned in the most box tops were awarded a pizza party; or, the students who turned in the most box tops were awarded gift cards. The awards depended on the amount of box tops turned in during the previous months.

The largest check that I recall was for $1,200. That was the year all classrooms received an Elmo if they didn't already have one. An Elmo is a camera that is attached to a digital projector and projects documents onto a board for the students to see. At that time, they were used quite often in the classrooms.

A list of items with participating box tops can be found at: www.boxtops4education.com. If you look at your grocery items, you will find a product with a box top on it. Just cut or tear off the small red box top, give to a student or a teacher whose school participates in the Box Top program.

General Mills started this program in 1996. Within two years, more than 30,000 schools had joined the program. Today, America's schools have earned more than $700 million. Raise money for Marshall County students by saving box tops and turning them in to local schools.