So I need a donation of thousands of pencils so my students can do sculptures for a new district wide initiative (go me)
Anyone know anyone who’s connected to a pencil manufacturer?
Sometimes wal Mart will donate things, especially for school projects. Call up your local supercenter and see what you can get from them. Otherwise, try looking up local surplus warehouses to see what they have
Out of curiosity? What are the students making? Could fake pencils be substituted?
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I use pencils as stickers when I am drying wood I harvested. The least expensive I have found is a nickel a piece.
1000 for $40?
Well today is the first day back to the grind - and with it - a new philosophy of doing things. This year the district is starting a project called “It starts with a pencil” (among other things) so we are going to take on the sculptural aspects of the pencil (ah la Jennifer Maestre) http://www.jennifermaestre.com
Walmart will spot teachers a $25 gift card for a class once a year. I bust thru this card for a contest I do in October for the elementary kiddos. But it is kind of them.
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That is fantastic but I can’t buy anything via eBay unless it’s out of my own pocket (which might happen for this strangeness). I’ve written two companies asking for factory mistakes in hopes they might see the humor behind my concept. I’ll keep you posted (or I will be buying a ton of pencils) thank you for the link.
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If you end up buying out of pocket check Alibaba. The prices are around $0.02 per pencil with large quantities like 10,000. When you say thousands… 
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something to consider (time and materials cost vs cost of just buying actual pencils) get some cheap lumber and some paint, and see how many fake pencils you can make over the course of a Saturday
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And so it begins…Nicole’s pencil covered walls.
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10000 pencils ?
Automatic Repeating Pencil Crossbow.
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If you can PM me some specific information about the project, I’ll contact some of my promotional product contacts and see if I can get some donations.
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How do teachers apply for the gift card?
You call the manager and explain the situation, write a letter on school letterhead detailing the project, date needed and exactly what it’s going to be used for.
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How many thousands, exactly? DollarTree sells 16 Jot yellow pencils for a buck. At that price, 1,000 would run $62.50 (plus tax). This assumes that they have 125 boxes available…
I looked briefly at AliExpress (no good prices), Staples, and Amazon. Best price I found was $8.81/144 on Amazon, which works out to $61.18 per 1,000. DollarTree and Staples tied for 2nd at $62.50/1,000. Interestingly, for Staples, the smallest box offered the best value. Buying from Staples on Tax-free day might be the best route as Amazon charges 3% tax…
If you’re looking for donations, perhaps getting many smaller cash donations might be easier than a corporate sponsor. I’d easily spend more than $61.18 on an evening’s entertainment (dinner and a movie for two). If you decide to go this route, I’ll pay for the first 1,000 - just let me know.
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If you really wanted to do a pencil covered wall, I’d make a silicone mold of a bunch of pencils laid out in a brick (or other repeating) pattern, then cast them repeatedly in resin, paint with an airbrush and apply in chunks.
I just did some measuring, and 100 pencils would cover about 1.53 sq ft. a 7.5’X10’ wall would take about 4,900 pencils (and probably your sanity if glued up one at a time).
As a mold of 100 pencils, you’d still have to make and install about 50 of them (perhaps more depending on how you handle the edges).
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First and foremost I adore you - thank you for researching this. I’m waiting to get the new staples quote to see what we can get with our school discount. I appreciate the willingness to pitch in for this effort - but I want to use school funds to accomplish this if at all possible. I’ve spent a small fortune paying for needs of my classroom and I’m working to not continue the pattern (or to rely on the kindness of others).
The show for this project is due in October and I can’t order anything till September 1st so it’s going to be a fun little race to get it done. But hey, that’s part of the joy of being a teacher.
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I’m not sure why they do fiscal year Sept-Aug. Seems to me you would want it at a different time, Being that school starts in Aug. Makes maintainance items get pushed off that shouldn’t be.
It’s LISD, who knows. Tomorrow they are closing parts of I35 to bus thousands of LISD teachers to Denton for a fireside chat. One minute they are broke and the next they spend $5 million on iPads. Go figure.
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Maybe you are listing those two events in the wrong order?
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You don’t get to $1Trillion in market cap without selling a lot of tablets to a lot of schools.
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