PPB March 2017

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perspectives Tina Berres Filipski
Editor
WhenThe PPAI Expo 2017 opened in
Las Vegas in January, it attracted
nearly 20,000 industry professionals over
six days who spent money on the city’s
hotels, cabs, food and drink, shopping and
entertainment. They dined with clients,
held team dinners and probably picked
up a gift or two for the kids back home.
Adding it all up, the show’s economic
impact on the city is estimated at $18.4
million by the Las Vegas Convention and
Visitors Authority.
But when Expo closed its doors on
January 12, a significant economic impact
of another kind began to be measured.
Since 2007, PPAI has collaborated with
the Kids In Need Foundation, which
provides school supplies to children in
underprivileged schools across America.
Staff and volunteers from this amazing
organization and its Las Vegas-based
partner, Teacher EXCHANGE®, work on-
site at each PPAI Expo to collect donation
forms and gather discarded samples, excess
promotional products and even booth
components—all donated by generous
exhibitors.They box and ship the donated
items to some of the 40 affiliate resource
centers nationwide. Teachers at schools
in low-income areas can shop at these
resource centers for free school supplies,
incentives and prizes for their classrooms.
As the organization’s website states:
When kids live in extreme poverty it
means they come to school without the
necessary tools to learn. Studies show
that when kids have school supplies
of their own, classroom behavior and
grades improve, self-esteem strengthens,
and kids develop better attitudes toward
school and learning.
Kids In Need accepts most kinds of
products including classroom staples—
pens, paper, notebooks and calendars—and
also lanyards, cups, candy, mints, umbrellas,
stress toys, flashlights, lanyards, glassware
and books—you name it, they can use it.
Almost anything can be put to good use in
the classroomby creative teachers who use
our products as tools, incentives, rewards,
prizes and teaching aids.
At this year’s show, the organization
collected 15 pallets of promotional
products, three bikes and two desk chairs,
all worth nearly $31,000.
I’m proud to say that, since 2008,
generous Expo exhibitors have provided
more than $320,000 in product donations
to this organization. Their efforts have
been significant to helping Kids In Need
assist more than 154,000 teachers and
4.8 million students in some of the most
challenged communities across the U.S.
PPAI is exceedingly grateful to our
member companies who have supported
this program over the years—not just
with the donations from the Expo but
those suppliers, distributors and other
businesses who donate unneeded products
from their warehouses, sample closets and
showrooms throughout the year.
If you are cleaning out your samples or
inventory this spring, consider donating
to Kids In Need or making a monetary
donation. Find the donation form at www.
As Kids In Need proves,
school supplies can change lives.
We Collect More Than Good Memories
Mary P. Banghart (left), store manager at Las Vegas-based Teacher EXCHANGE, coordinates the collection of
promotional products donations at The PPAI Expo with her team of dedicated volunteers.
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