Friends and Neighbors: Levesque helps Mary Lynch Elementary with receipts for cash program

Local woman Jan Levesque is limited in the ways she can volunteer, but she has found a way to make a big difference in small ways - closing in on $1 million dollars in receipts pennies at a time.

Levesque, whose neighbor is Mary Lynch Elementary second grade teacher Amy McManigal, tallies all the totals from the Main Street Market receipts for the school.

"I can't exactly go to the school and help the kids read or anything, so this is just a little way to help them," Levesque said. "I can't go out and pick up trash along the highway or anything."

In the past, McManigal collected the grocery store receipts from students and parents.

Those receipts were then totaled, with certain exceptions, and the receipts as well as a calculator tape was bound up and readied for submission.

"Before Jan started helping us we were doing it all on adding machines," McManigal said.

Totals were originally bound in about $20,000 increments, as the rolls of receipts and tapes would become unmanageable in larger amounts, according to McManigal.

"In the past its always been a teacher or a para(professional) has to enter them when they have free time," McManigal said. "So, I come over every so often and have coffee with Jan and I said, 'Hey would you be willing to help out?'"

"She took the program over at the beginning of last school year. She asked me if I'd be interested in helping if she found me a calculator," Levesque said. "So I asked if I could set it up on a spreadsheet because that is a lot easier."

Levesque set up a spreadsheet, taught McManigal how to use the program, and began entering the receipts as they came in.

"I make the computer do the work. I input a formula with deducts the (disallowed) items, and then it gives me a total." Levesque said. "I keep a running total."

In the beginning of their partnership, both Levesque and McManigal were entering receipts, and they would then cut and paste to integrate the information.

Now, Levesque does the entry and the receipts are totaled in $100,000 increments and are attached to a spreadsheet, in a neat, tidy bundle, according to McManigal.

"Oh yeah, they are going to be neat," Levesque said. "It's not so bad, you know. I work on it here and there and sometimes I don't have much in the line of receipts to do."

The pair matches the receipts, in order, to the spreadsheet which they print-off and then give to the local grocery store to be sent to the corporate office.

"This is just something I can do. It's a lot of work, a lot of receipts," Levesque said.

"The regulations of the program are that they will pay after $100,000," McManigal explained. "They pay us $1,000 for every $100,000 we turn in."

Levesque has helped present nine submissions in the last two school years, according to McManigal, totaling $9,000 in checks the school has received.

"The one I am working on right now will make it a million dollars in receipts," Levesque said.

The funds from the checks are placed into an account and then used to purchase items the district cannot or will not pay for.

McManigal is in charge of managing the funds as well, and she has used them to purchase balls, jump ropes and other playground equipment such as flag football sets.

The funds have also purchased gift certificates to the local Dairy Queen to celebrate completed testing for the students at Mary Lynch.

Classroom supplies for teachers that the district does not cover and guidance programs have been purchased using the funds as well.

"She just ordered caterpillars so (the students) could have butterflies," Levesque said. "So the money covers extra things they can't get from the district."

The funds purchase backpacks for students who do not have one, and once the funds purchased new clothing and personal items for a student in need.

Money from the fund was also gifted to the family of a young para-educator who passed away unexpectedly last year.

"At Christmas last year we were able to donate $1,000 to her family out of this money," McManigal said. "Just to help with any expense her husband and kids would need."

"The money is used in very worthwhile ways," Levesque said.

Levesque and McManigal wish to encourage everyone to bring their receipts to the elementary school, and they said that many people who do not have children in the school system still donate the receipts from the local grocery store.

"They just drop the receipts off at the front desk at Mary Lynch and then Deb just brings them to me," McManigal said.

During last summer a box was available at the Kimball Public Swimming Pool as well as at the Kimball Junior/Senior High School during the free meal program.

"We didn't get much during the summer," McManigal said. "But we made up for it during the school year."

Receipts dated from 2009 forward can be accepted, so even if you find old receipts from Main Street Market, McManigal and Levesque urge you to submit them.

Patrons will have to find ways to deliver the receipts themselves, as clerks at the grocery are not allowed to collect the receipts for patrons according to the rules of the program.

"We want to really encourage people to bring them to the school. Send them with any school aged kid that you know," McManigal said. "I gather all the receipts, bring them to Jan, then she does all the work and I submit it."

Levesque added that she is willing to take the receipts herself for the elementary school, and that they can be dropped off directly to her.

"If somebody's got a bunch of receipts I would be happy to go get them," Levesque said. "Or they can bring them here. If my car is out there, I am here. Unless I'm driving my friend wherever she needs to go."

"She is a volunteer of all sorts," McManigal added of her friend and neighbor.

"It isn't much, really. This is something I enjoy doing. A little way to give back to the community," Levesque said. "It's amazing that we have been able to do as much as we have. It pleases me to be able to help out."