Spools for Schools
February 23, 2011
Fueling creativity and innovation is a corporate credo at Lehigh Direct, so when employees had an idea for donating residual end rolls or “spool” to local school art departments, it’s no surprise that the pilot program immediately received a green light.”Spools for Schools” offers paper remnants from in-line production, as well as the core on which the paper is spooled, to area schools. There will be no cost to the schools, and all that Lehigh asks is that appropriate arrangements are made for pick up of the roll (they typically measure 38” x 6” and can weigh 20 or more pounds) and that the schools properly dispose of or re-cycle the cores with any remaining paper.
“It perfectly unites our environmental initiatives with our community awareness efforts,” explained Paul Palmer, President of Lehigh Direct. “We understand that many of our local schools are operating under constrained budgets and that by supplying this un-used paper, we can help to stretch those budgets while encouraging budding artists.”
Bob Hackett, Executive Vice President of Lehigh Direct described how a few initial spools that were given on an informal basis proved to be big hits with grade
school art classes. “Some children created murals which literally wrapped around classrooms,” he laughed, “And because of the size of the paper, others were able to outline fellow students from head to toe instead of just tracing their hands!”
“Pristine paper in these large proportions does seem to spark creative juices in our young artists. They really get a kick out of having huge expanses of paper to fill” added Bob.
The Spools for Schools program is another example of how Lehigh Direct gives back to the community. For more information about our Spools for Schools program, contact us at 877.622.7370.