Elmer’s Bag It Forward School Supplies Shopping and Donations

School starts in just 4 weeks. Wooo Whoooo. Oh I mean. Sigh. This year my daughter starts 5th grade and my son will be entering Kindergarten. He’s been asking me every day, “Is tomorrow the day I get to go to school?”. Funny how kids can’t wait to go to school when they are that young. As they grow older all you hear is, “I can’t wait ’til I get a day off.”  We have a 2 long lists of school supplies to fill and we hope to find some really great sales at Walmart. I’ve never had to shop for 2 supplies list so this shopping trip should prove to be interesting.

The kids were ready to go. They had lists in hand and ready to shop.  Walmart has tons of isles to find what you need and also offer you plenty of isles to find it in.  What’s so great is a lot of it is on sale right now!

With our budget and four kids we don’t get much of a opportunity to Bag it forward, but with the help of Collective Bias and this shop we were blessed to be able to afford the supplies we need and we are also able to purchase extra school supplies to participate in the program and help out others who are less fortunate.

My daughter was a huge help this year reading from the lists and making sure we got the quantity count right and products we needed.  I can’t believe there is so many different kinds of Elmer’s school glue and we just about needed them all.

Have you ever heard of  Elmer’s  glue gel?  I had no clue but they had it at the store. My kindergartener needed it.   Here’s what it looks like.  Not sure what the kids will use it for. I’ve never seen it until now.

We had a long list of items to pick up and I had tons of people asking me why I was taking photos. I swear I need a shirt that says “I’m a blogger.  Ask me why I’m taking pictures and I’ll put you in my next article.” Lol Okay, what do you think? will the questions stop then?    I had to cut back on photos a bit because of all the looks from the employee’s and I didn’t want to get thrown out. I swear Walmart has hired a ton of new staff lately or they just had all their employee’s working in the Back to School department because everyone was stalking, not “stalking”, I mean “stocking” supplies.   Okay I could of edited it out but it’s late and I’m tired and feeling the need to be funny right now.   I made your day right?

Here’s the awesomely cool bins that Walmart displays supplies in. Makes it easy to just walk right by and grab what you need.

Are you noticing a trend in products here?  Besides for the packages of  24 Crayons I purchased for $.25 cents each the Elmer’s school glue was only $.40 a bottle and $.40 for the 2 pack Elmer’s glue sticks so I purchased lots of both to have plenty to donate.

Here’s what Bag it forward http://bagitforward.org is all about.

As students head back to school this fall, many will head out to shop for brand new, shiny school supplies. But some will not have the resources they need to be successful. That’s where you and Elmer’s come in. This year, let’s join together and Bag It Forward, by picking up an extra bag of school supplies and donating it locally in your community.

This summer, Elmer’s has teamed up with 50 bloggers to kickoff the Bag it Forward movement. These bloggers are gathering school supply bags for families or organizations of their choice, and encouraging others to join in.

In addition we are hosting Elmer’s Virtual Bag It Forward Donation. The virtual donation will begin on July 25. By simply sharing a virtual bag with a friend via blogs, we can work together to raise money for Adopt-A-Classroom.

Join us in the #BagItForward movement and give someone you know a bag of school supplies, real one or a virtual!

Together we can make a difference.

Once you have your donation supplies together take a photo and share it on their website to show that you Bagged Forward http://www.bagitforward.org no blog post necessary – just upload a picture! It’s a great feeling to donate and my kids learned a valuable lesson today. That’s it’s not all about them and that we can help others who also need school supplies so they can get a good education just like the one we are blessed with.

For all the fun and excitement we had during our shop and to check out the new products that Elmer’s carries along with great Walmart sales on many Back to School items view my “thisMoment” slide show.

Here’s my shopping trip hall. I think I purchased a little bit of everything. They were out of somethings so we’ll have to go back but we picked up about 70% of what we needed.

and the other half goes to those who need it just as much as we do and can’t afford to purchase. Here’s our Donation bag.

Now it’s your turn  to Help Elmer’s Help Kids in Need!

Help Elmer’s Help Kids in Need!
Millions of kids go without school supplies every year. Elmer’s is partnering with the Kids In Need Foundation to provide essential school supplies to students who need them the most. For every “like” on the Elmer’s Facebook page through Sept. 1, the company will donate one Elmer’s product. Plus, they will make an additional donation for every unique view the video receives on the Elmer’s Kids In Need tab. Please like the Elmer’s Facebook page, watch the video, and share it with your friends and family. With just one click, you will help a child in need!

*Elmer’s will donate up to 200,000 products for this promotion to the Kids In Need Foundation

Disclaimer: This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Elmer’s #BagItForward : #collectivebias All opinions are 100% my own. Donations were made to an inner city school teacher very close to my heart. She’s been teaching for just about 20 years and is so excited to have additional supplies that will help out the children she teaches. Every year she has several students who come to school with no supplies at all and it gets harder and harder to help them get what they need. She’s very grateful for the donations.