Volunteer spotlight on Mary Sanders

For the past five years, Mary Sanders has volunteered at Taylor in many different capacities. Whether serving as a room parent, leading the KidsGiving program, or serving on the PTA’s Executive Board, Mary’s work leaves a lasting impression and can be felt far beyond the walls of Taylor.

KidsGiving

Those families that have participated in the KidsGiving program know that Mary is the driving force behind their frequent collection drives. Be it an AFAC food drive, toiletries collection, or donations of household cleaning supplies, Mary knows how to identify a need and then drum up the support and resources to address it.

“Through the KidsGiving program,” Mary writes, “we have had a significant impact on helping others in the community through several clothing, book, food and household supply drives and in raising funds through our popular Giving Tuesday event, which allows students to donate their own money to support local nonprofits.”

Backpack Buddies

With her professional background working in the field of food security issues, Mary helped get the Backpack Buddies program up and running at Taylor. Starting in 2023, she worked with the DC Food Project to help support Taylor’s Backpack Buddies program with monthly food donations and create a food cabinet. The Backpack Buddies program serves families facing food insecurity issues.

This year Mary spearheaded the breakfast-over-break bags program, a PTA-funded initiative that sent breakfast foods home to the Backpack Buddies families over the school’s winter and spring breaks.

Taylor Share Table

Three years ago, Mary set up the district’s first Share Table at Taylor. The Share Table is a dedicated location in the cafeteria where students can donate fruits and vegetables purchased from the lunch line that would otherwise end up in the trash. This provides a healthy snack resource for students who didn’t bring a snack to school. Through her work, Mary has now set up Share Tables in 21 schools across APS.

A mother of two boys, Oliver, a 6th grader at Dorothy Hamm Middle School and Theo, a third grader at Taylor, she’s not too busy to also be a substitute teacher at both of these schools.

Outside of volunteering at Taylor, Mary is the chair of the APS School Health Advisory Board which helps provide advice and recommendations to the school board regarding student health.

“Mary is so generous with her time,” writes Ellie Krueger, second grade teacher at Taylor. “She is willing to help in any way possible to make Taylor a better place for students and staff. As a Taylor community, we are so grateful to have Mary’s constant support.”