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Community service did not even have to extend beyond their classrooms for students of Lincoln High School this fall for their project. Budget cuts and recession had resulted in a situation where the school had no more paper to write or print on and did not have the resources to buy any.

According to a Jefferson Awards club and a Lincoln junior Kelly Witkop, teachers, with their already meagre salary were paying for the paper they were using for the school. She said the situation this year was worse than last year and Post-its were used to answer Algebra Quizzes.
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In order to handle the situation and complete their service project, Kelly suggested a paper drive as a part of the Students in Action project. Their drive was successful with students collecting about 55 reams of paper to be used for printing. Their present goal is to collect 9145 reams to meet the immediate requirements. What they have collected so far is a far cry from meeting their demands.

9145 reams of paper are used by teachers in a school during an academic year. This year saw some of the worst budget cuts in California School Districts. It is in fact long since they have cut back on luxuries and frills. Most of the schools are in fact managing with fewer books and greater number of students in classrooms.

Teachers are admirably coping without any extra incentives and comforts. In spite of all these sacrifices, schools are not able to obtain even the most necessary and basic requirement – paper.

In an effort to combat this situation, many teachers have resorted to posting notes on the internet and providing the facility for students to submit their assignments through e-mail. While this is an admirable effort for most institutions, sadly, at least 30 percent of students in Lincoln do not have access to Internet at home due to the fact that they belong to the low income group who opt for subsidized lunches.

According to Jackie Zeller, the Principal of Lincoln, the school spent $36,000 last year for purchasing paper. With the budget cut more than half this year, the school is now facing an utterly desperate situation.

She went on to say that she would not hesitate going from door to door asking for paper to manage the situation if she had to. However, Students in Action members have taken it upon themselves to do the job for her.

Kelly’s paper drive idea was much appreciated and is being put into action. Their project was approved after much manoeuvring around bureaucracy in the district. Students ventured to the mall asking for donations. Kelly, who is sixteen, went to various stores with her mom such as Kinko’s, Best Buy, Office Max and UPS store and managed to get 12 reams of paper just from Office Depot.

According to D’Andrade, the club’s advisor, it was really encouraging to see the kind of passion among students. She also said that she felt inspired working with these children, who put their community even above themselves. Kelly and the other students of course are extremely thankful and happy to see hope in the faces of their teachers.