Office Depot Back-to-School Program Awards Four Pasadena Unified Campuses $5,000 in Supplies

When Noemi Orduña, principal at Octavia E. Butler Magnet School, learned that her school had qualified for $5,000 in supplies from Office Depot through their “Round up Your Change” Back To School program, she knew there was one thing her students needed – pencils.

“These are middle school students,“ said Orduña, during a special event held at the Office Depot in East Pasadena Friday to celebrate the recipient schools.

“We give them pencils every day, and five minutes later they have no idea where that pencil is. We go through hundreds of pencils!” she said lughing.

“So when we learned we had all this money to spend at Office Depot,” said Orduña, “the first thing our teachers wondered was, ‘Can we buy pencils?’”

Four PUSD Title 1 schools were chosen as recipients of the $5,000 award, along with Butler – Washington Elementary, Madison Elementary, and Rose City High School. The schools were chosen by the Pasadena Educational Foundation, which also administered the funds.

As part of the $5,000 that each school received, many of the teachers ordered larger items, such as printers, projectors and furniture, which were delivered to the schools by Office Depot prior to Friday’s event.

“Today is just the celebration,” said Marleni Jimenez of the Pasadena Educational Foundation. “We are proud to be a part of all of this, and we’re grateful to Office Depot for all of their help and support.”