Students in Chelsea Izzo’s fourth-grade class at Yates Elementary School are receiving special packages this week full of new books, games and a friendly reminder their teachers supports them.

Izzo was one of a handful of teachers around the country who won a $1,000 grant from Donors Choose, a national nonprofit that helps educators raise money to buy classroom supplies and other resources. She used the money to buy supplies for her students now learning from home.

She learned last Tuesday she won the grant and spent the week communicating with parents and gauging student interest in what they could use at home, all the while trying to keep it a secret from her students that they would soon get a special delivery in the mail.

“For many of our kids in Schenectady to get a package addressed to them at their house is special,” she said.

The first deliveries made it to their destinations early this week, with Izzo collecting pictures of smiling students opening boxes. Some parents plan to pick up the boxes Friday when Izzo helps out at the meal pick-up station at Yates.

Go here to read the entire story in the Daily Gazette, published on April 15.