Ana Duran was driving through towns in Colombia with her family in 2019 when their tire went flat, leaving them stuck in an unfamiliar place. Stopping at a cafe, she went inside to ask for help.
As Ana and her family waited for the tire to be fixed, they noticed children’s drawings hung in a courtyard by a building across the street, done only in black and white.
Art programs help children develop communication, emotional intelligence and fine motor skills by drawing with crayons or painting a picture. Despite their benefits, art programs are often the first to be affected by budget cuts.
The cafe’s locals said the building with a tin roof and clay walls was a school.
“We were waiting for the tire to be fixed, they were talking about how the kids were making the drawings,” Ana said. “They just do it in black because they don’t have colors.”
Ana and her son, Daniel Duran, a 17-year-old Buchholz High School senior, started collecting colored pencils and crayons to donate after realizing the supplies often went to waste toward the end of a school year. Friends, family and teachers donated used supplies to the cause.
When the Durans visited Colombia again later that year, they brought the supplies to a local, who donated them to nearby schools.
Their efforts created Color Compass, a grassroots organization led by Ana, Daniel and his sister.
They gather crayons and colored pencils from collection boxes at two Gainesville Catholic churches, Queen of Peace and St. Patrick.
After collecting the supplies, the family packs crayons into boxes to be shipped off with handwritten letters to organizations in Colombia and Kenya to distribute to schools.
The project’s name comes from “the idea that art and your imagination kind of dictates the direction you go,” Daniel said.
The collection effort is worth it to make the kids feel valued, he said.
“A lot of the time they’re neglected in many ways,” Daniel said. “To make them feel like they’re cared for in some ways is what we strive for.”
Art programs help children develop communication, emotional intelligence and fine motor skills by drawing with crayons or painting a picture. Despite their benefits, art programs are often the first to be affected by budget cuts.
Color Compass is supported by multiple companies, Ana said, including her hairdresser.
With rising shipping prices, the family is seeking support while looking to expand.
The family recently hosted a “birthday party-like” event at St. Francis House, a shelter for women and families experiencing homelessness. The family used money they collected from church groups to buy basketballs, volleyballs, an indoor hoop and a magician for the children.
The Duran family hopes to raise more money to host similar events. Sarah Duran, a 9-year-old Queen of Peace Catholic Academy student, helps pack supplies.
She will be taking Daniel’s “place” when he moves out for college, she said.
“Seeing something that was once a family project making other kids smile and seem really happy makes me feel really happy, too,” Sarah said.
She sees Color Compass as a tree, she said, where the water is the people and companies they have worked with. The roots are the connections the organization has made with people.
“The stronger the roots get, the stronger the tree gets,” Sarah said, “which is why we’re happy for all the help we’ve been able to get with Color Compass.”
Ana Duran said the project is her way of teaching her children the importance of helping people.
“I used to tell them that we have to work for the people,” Ana said. “People don’t have to say thank you because that will make society better.”
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In addition to Color Compass, a longtime school supplies partnership also supports Alachua County teachers.
Tools for Schools, a collaboration between the Alachua County Solid Waste Department and Alachua County Public Schools, has provided school supplies to the county’s teachers since 2004. Open on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, the building serves as a resource center.
Shelley Samec, a 20-year Alachua County employee, works for the solid waste department. The center reduces waste by reusing school supplies, serving as a space where people can donate old educational materials, she said.
“This place was built to divert stuff from going to the landfill by bringing it here,” Samec said. “People would normally throw stuff away, but now we have [the stuff] here, and teachers can use it.”
Once an abandoned building off of 1147 SE Seventh Ave, it’s now filled with everything teachers could need. Piles of spiral notebooks, counting blocks and posters fill every corner of the room.
Samec said Tools for Schools tries to alleviate teachers’ struggles for resources by giving ACPS teachers supplies for free. Teachers who visit the supply center must show their ACPS identification, she said.
Samec wishes more teachers would come to the center to supply their classrooms, she said.
“We know they need them, and we just want them to know we’re here,” Samec said.
Tools for Schools recently opened a mobile unit, which Samec said is a “food truck with school supplies” traveling to smaller cities Tuesday afternoons. The mobile unit drives to Alachua, Archer, Hawthorne, High Springs, Micanopy and Newberry.
“It’s a great idea to get stuff instead of being thrown away,” Samec said. “It gets to have a second, third, fourth [chance] at life.”
Supplies come from donations, and anyone can donate. The resource center gets supplies from retiring teachers and UF education students who no longer need the supplies, she said.
Tools for Schools receives numerous donations of office supplies, including three-ring binders and binder clips, as well as a large quantity of crayons.
Contact Alanna Robbert at arobbert@alligator.org. Follow her on X @alannafitzr.
Alanna Robbert is a journalism senior and a general assignment reporter for the Metro Desk in Summer 2025. In her free time, she enjoys reading and going to the gym.
