Yearbook Donations Provide Books to Elementary School Students

Second grade teacher Jacki Lugg is close to finishing her third year as the elementary school yearbook adviser at Mullica Township Elementary School in Elwood, New Jersey. This year, her community astounded her with their generosity.

It’s not like she wasn’t expecting any donations. Lugg said she’d had a few people approach her about donating in previous years. Two days before their sales deadline, as she was making social media posts for the yearbook, Lugg figured she might as well share something about the Yearbook Angel program. Their books sold for $22 each, and she hoped to get a few donations for the students who had told her they wanted a yearbook, but their parents couldn’t afford it.

A few minutes after the post went out, she texted her Walsworth Yearbook rep, Becky Schneider, that she’d sold 10 books in 15 minutes.

“I thought that was, like, whoa so cool,” Lugg said. She had no idea that a few hours later those 10 books would seem like a drop in the bucket. By the time their sales closed that Friday, 117 yearbooks had been purchased by Yearbook Angels.

“I just thought maybe I’ll get a couple of books out of it to help those little teary-eyed kids who came up to me. Never did I think 117,” Lugg said.

Lugg shared her gratitude in a Facebook post.

“Can I be real a second?

For just a millisecond?

Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?”

Our elementary yearbook is in its third year. The last two years, kind people (“Yearbook Angels”) approached me to donate yearbooks, and we had a handful to give away both years. This year, just to change up yearbook sales postings, I decided to talk about the Yearbook Angel possibility, in case people didn’t know it existed. I made that post on Wednesday night at school while I was waiting for my daughter to get done with basketball.

I am ecstatic to tell you that we have had 108 Angel Books donated as of this moment. I really think we might be able to get a book in every house of every elementary child in our school.

Our population is approximately 360 children from PK – 4, and we are at 230 books ordered total. There is still a little more time if you’d like to get your Yearbook Angel book order in before this link shuts down.

I will close this post saying that I have been in a stunned zen aura since Wednesday night when these orders started pouring in, and I have had the website shut down due to sales caps twice – but we adjusted and got the cap raised. At the same time, I am not surprised at all, because our community has always been one to rise up! THANK YOU, all! <3<3<3

Love, Ms. Lugg

“We live in an amazing community. I’m floored and I’m touched, but in the same way I’m really not. I would expect people to rise to the occasion,” Lugg said.

Their school is for pre-K through fourth grade students and has about 330 students this school year. With the donations, they were able to order 275 books. Because the school has several sets of siblings, Lugg thought she’d be able to get at least one book to every home.

“We are a rural community in the Pine Barrens of south Jersey,” Lugg said, explaining that their township has its share of economic struggles. They’re a Title 1 school with more than 30% of students receiving free or reduced lunch in a normal year, but the community has a strong Thanksgiving and Christmas food drive as well as a giving tree program. Many of the Yearbook Angels were current and former district employees or parents of children who are currently enrolled.

“We’re a community that likes to take care of each other,” Lugg said.

If you want to set up a donation program at your school, it’s simple with online sales. Have donors purchase a book, but in place of the student’s name enter “Yearbook Angel” or a code of your choosing to signify that it’s a donation. You can then have the school counselor select the students who would benefit most from a yearbook. The counselor can inform the student and parents so the student can pick up the yearbook at distribution like everyone else without being singled out as a donation.

You can find Yearbook Angel social media graphics on our marketing page for you to advertise the Yearbook Angel program to your community.