As school gets ready to start, a DeKalb County business is busy meeting peak demand for its product, a school tool box with complete supplies tailored to a child’s specific school needs. School Tool Box CEO Doug Stice says their office and warehouse operation at the old Barber Greene factory on Bethany Road will send kits stocked with school supplies to a home or a school. Orders are taken on-line and are school specific. Stice says ordering takes about five minutes versus time spent in-person shopping with a paper list provided to a family by their school. Product is purchased by families in 47 of the 48 contiguous states (no sales were made in Vermont).
For every box sold, the company makes a donation for a meal to the Feed My Starving Children organization (more than 1.5 million donated to date). Stice also did a “round up” donation option for customers this year and raised $28,000 for Shriner’s Hospitals.
Full-time employment is 15 according to Stice, but his summer seasonal employment for warehouse workers is 118 primarily made up of local high school and college students. Stice says there can be some overtime involved as last-minute orders come in just before the start of school, so he tries to thank employees with things like a picnic or having an ice cream truck drive through the warehouse offering tasty treats.
Stice began School Tool Box 24 years ago and said the business has been constantly growing. They are now the second largest school supply company in the country. At some point, Stice expects they will need a second location to handle demand.
On a side note, Stice mentioned a special Rotary connection for his family. In 2013 his son was part of a six-week Rotary exchange to Argentina and struck up a friendship with a girl from Argentina who was part of the same exchange. The friendship has continued and the two are now getting married.