Creative Pitch distributes to underfunded Chicago art teachers materials
donated by Chicago ad agencies and other businesses. (® 2009 Creative Pitch)
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Visitors to the 2009 Chicago Green Festival at Navy Pier could learn about Creative Pitch. This great not-for-profit initiative is organized by BFriend Inc. for the purpose of turning "trash" into art supplies and providing underfunded Chicago art teachers with much-needed materials that would otherwise end up unused in landfills.
How Creative Pitch began
Ad agencies and other businesses often end up with piles of unused materials, from boxes of markers that get opened and used for only one presentation to pallets of brand-new paper that is the "wrong kind" for an office's current needs. At best, these supplies get stuffed in a closet and sit unused. At worst, they get labeled trash and thrown away.
The Chicago-based creative agency Brainforest took note of how wasteful this is and organized Creative Pitch to make it easier to get these supplies into the hands of those who need them most – Chicago art teachers who may have tiny budgets that allow them to spend only $1 per student per year on art supplies.
What Creative Pitch does
Donor design firms and creative agencies can send neatly organized materials to Creative Pitch, who coordinates the effort by gathering supplies at a single warehouse location teachers can visit and "shop."
The list of materials Creative Pitch accepts ranges from the basic (pens, pencils, brushes, paint, scissors, folders) to the more esoteric (photography art and stock books, carpet squares, collage and sculpture materials, and even leftover project samples like T-shirts).
Creative Pitch makes sure all materials are identified and sorted, then allows teachers from schools that meet Creative Pitch's requirements to shop the stock free of charge at least twice a year, but always whenever they need things. To make sure that the neediest schools get served first, Creative Pitch distributes supplies only to elementary schools where at least 80% of the student body is made up of free lunch students who live at or below the poverty level.
How all Chicagoans can help
Although Creative Pitch does in some cases accept donations from people other than businesses, in general the best way that individual Chicagoans can support this wonderful organization is by making monetary donations to help fund its administrative costs or by volunteering their time to help sort supplies, assist teachers in shopping the stock, promote awareness of the organization, or even hold fundraisers for it.
Companies, colleges, and universities are encouraged to organize their own drives to collect materials to donate to Creative Pitch.
Creative Pitch is holding a spring fundraiser on May 28, 2009. Tickets may be purchased online through May 27 and then at the door.
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