I believe we all can agree that teachers are truly the backbone of society. They do so much but are vastly under compensated for their tremendous contributions. I am a 71-year-old retired government employee who desires to show these dedicated educators how much we appreciate them. Also, having eight children of my own successfully graduate secondary school and go on to college, I feel extremely grateful to these superstars.

Every year millions of board feet of lumber are carted off from building sites and dumped directly into landfills. My plan is to retrieve much of the discarded material and use it to create an assortment of thank you gifts for our much deserving teachers. After the initial roll out and proof of concept, we will seek partnerships with local builders for the discarded wood along with companies like Lowes, Walmart, Harbor Freight, Hobby Lobby and others to contribute some of the supplies used to create the gifts. My hope is to recruit other like-minded retired individuals with the necessary tools and skills to replicate the program in their areas of the country. Using my own funds, I have purchased an assortment of woodworking tools to create the gifts. I have also set up my entire garage to complete the tasks. To save on expenses, I will start the distributions at the schools closest to my home and work outward. Monetary and material donations will be sought-after later in the process, of which only 10 to 15 percent will be deducted for operating expenses. The other 85 plus percent will be distributed among the honorees along with the crafted gifts as the funds accumulate.