Who’s Who in 2022, Community: Stationery Aid

Families struggling financially to purchase costly back-to-school supplies were given a helping hand to ensure their children started off the new year with all the right equipment, thanks to the dedicated volunteers from Stationery Aid.

Under the guidance of founder Alison Schutt, they were able to gather enough supplies to help students from 20 schools, five of which were in the Moreton Bay Region.

About Stationery Aid

Stationery Aid is a volunteer-based organisation that collects, sorts, cleans, renews and donates excess and used education resources to disadvantaged students across the Moreton Bay Region, Brisbane and other regions in Queensland.

It was founded in 2020 by Alison and Jan Schutt, who realised there was a need to collect excess and perfectly usable school stationery to prevent it from going to landfill.

To help get the foundation up and running, Alison and Jan partnered with local community groups, schools and volunteers before setting out on their mission to make a difference and create positive change for families and the environment.

Alison spoke to Moreton Daily in February 2022 about the number of booklists and school packs she and her volunteers had made to help struggling families before term one began.

Through the generosity of the community, Stationery Aid’s volunteers put together school packs for students of all ages.

In the packs were supplies such as exercise books, textbooks, pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, sharpeners, highlighters, glue, folders, book covers, art supplies, calculators and more.

These were given to students from 20 schools, five of which were from the Moreton Bay Region. This saw a total of 70 local families receive back-to-school supplies.

Stationery Aid works with schools and chaplains to determine where the packages are needed the most.

Alison said: “they might be families going through hardship, unemployment, domestic violence or who are destitute”.

Stationery Aid also receives requests from organisations such as The Salvation Army and Variety Queensland, who have families experiencing hardship.

In a bid to raise more money so they could help more people, Alison held a fundraising raffle where they offered up a Thermomix as the prize.

In addition, a trivia night was organised by Marist180 – another not-for-profit community organisation – with all funds from the night being donated to Stationery Aid.

Stationery Aid has a number off drop-off locations where families can donate their unused school supplies, which will then be cleaned up and given to new owners to ensure they start the school year off on the right foot.

Drop off locations include various schools and the offices of local parliamentary members.