Help Teachers Get Diverse Bandages for Students

I've lost track of how many times my Black children have come home from school with a beige Band-Aid on their knees after a fall at recess; or how many times I've picked them up from school and noticed a peach bandage wrapped around their finger from a papercut.

Since my oldest was four years old, I've been sending packages of Tru-Colour Bandages to school... Not just for them, but for every child who has brown skin.

All children deserve to feel seen and cared for exactly how they are.

After talking with my daughter's former teacher who has turned into a dear friend of our family, I realized the simple act of an educator wrapping a brown bandage on a student's scrape or cut is incredibly powerful. Their students feel seen, valued and cared for when a bandage matches their skin color.

Unfortunately, our public school teachers don't have it in their budgets to replace the complimentary "nude" (read: beige) bandages provided to them. That's why I'm asking for your help.

Can you help get diverse bandages into our kids' classrooms? Whether it's $2 or $20 -- your donation will help a child feel seen and valued in their moment of pain and hurt.

A wholesale package of 1,200 bandages from Tru-Colour -- a diverse-owned and operated company -- costs $120. When we can raise $840, we'll be able to stock every classroom in more than one Des Moines Public Elementary School with four different shades of bandages. That's 8,400+ elementary-aged students in Des Moines being able to go to their teacher when they get hurt and have them pull out a bandage that matches their skin color!

I know this is a lofty goal and such a simple concept, but we have to work together to make it happen. I am confident in our ability to do this -- not just for the sake of my own kids feeling like they belong, but for the sake of every child feeling seen and valued at school.

Let's make it happen!