FARMER CITY - A group of Blue Ridge teachers went shopping for their classrooms, but they didn't spend a dime.

Teachers at Blue Ridge Junior High and Mansfield Elementary were given the opportunity to pick out various items for their classrooms in a makeshift shop that was set up in a maintenance shed at the elementary school.

The items came from National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, a nonprofit organization that solicits donations from companies throughout the country and then redistributes the merchandise to its members, including schools and churches.

The Blue Ridge Education Foundation paid the annual $675 membership fee and the district will pay about $500 more in associated costs throughout the year. In return, the district will receive five distributions of goods that are worth an average of $18,000.

The first and third shipments go to the Mansfield campus; the second and fourth go to Schneider Elementary and Blue Ridge High School in Farmer City.

The fifth shipment, which arrives in the summer, will be used primarily by the transportation and maintenance departments.

Items in each shipment vary and can include educational supplies, sporting equipment, decorations, tools, office products, student incentives and more. Schools are also able to request certain products, but there's no guarantee they will receive them.

Superintendent Jay Harnack, who drove to Galesburg to pick up two pallets of merchandise for the district, described NAIER as a great program.

"This program infuses us with new products that we may not need immediately… (but) it helps us reduce what we will need in the future," Harnack said.

Despite having little control over what the district receives, Harnack believes the district will be able to find a good use for the items that are available.

"If you give something to an elementary teacher, pretty much regardless of what it is, they'll find a way to use it," he said. "All of the teachers that we have are tremendously resourceful."

Although some of the items fit a specific need and are given directly to a certain department, the rest are available to the staff on a first-come, first-served basis.

Giving them the chance to choose items on their own was one way for the district to thank its teachers, Harnack said.

"The foundation was looking for a way to let teachers know we appreciate their hard work and efforts for our kids," Harnack said.

The Blue Ridge Education Foundation is independent of the school district, but it works cooperatively with the school district to ensure its allocations target school district needs

The foundation was able to fund the membership fee because of Project UKnight, a community sponsorship program.

After the first shipment arrived, high school chemistry teacher Mike Hendricks unpacked about $1,000 worth of glassware, including beakers, graduated cylinders and test tubes.

"Christmas came early this year," he said.