Hoarder's Intervention Supports Education

            I’m a hoarder, but packing one-half of the living area has provided an intervention. Confession is good for the soul and urges the hoarder to free the desk drawers of their array, assortment, variety, plethora of ballpoint pens.

WOW!

I’ve been known to walk away with a pen I’m using if it has not been designed to scream, “I am not yours. Return me immediately.” The bottom of my purse contains a cache of missing pens.

           Today’s task included cleaning out the 4-drawer sewing chest I use as a side table. In the top drawer most of the pens were stashed. The next drawer contained sandwich baggies filled with labeled flash drives, some date to the time of floppy discs. To the side was another secret stash of writing utensils, including #2 pencils, sharpened.

            The third and fourth drawers held external hard drives, back-up drives for my computer and for the personal computer I had when living in Bartlett, an outside power source for my phone, and a few…pens.

Mrs. Renee accepts donation.

            I was astonished by the mass of pens I placed on the coffee table and showed the multi-colored, design extravaganza to Marvin when he got home. “You ought to take those to school…” What a great idea!

            The high school secretary received the phone call and gave the correct answer to win a large storage baggie of black and blue ink pens to be personally delivered to the office. She said the teachers would welcome them.

            “Johnny, why aren’t you doing your classwork/ writing your rough draft/ writing in your journal/ taking notes?” To that question, all students know the answer… “I left my book bag …in my locker/ on the bus/ at practice/ at home/ at my friend’s house/ in the cafeteria/…”

With the generous donation the school just received, “Here, Johnny. Use this pen and borrow some paper. Get to work!”

The treasure trove of pens lives on in furtherance of public education.