Not all shredders are created equally. They come in various sizes and security levels, to start. When teacher Kevin Rickard posted his need for a new high-capacity shredder for Newtown Elementary School in Virginia Beach, VA, GBC answered the call, donating an AutoFeed+ 600X shredder. This shredder is the ideal high-capacity microcut shredder for schools, ensuring student privacy is protected, and the hands-free shredder is perfect for Newtown Elementary’s end-of-year records purge.
A School in Need
Newtown Elementary School is a Title I school within the Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Newtown is a Title One school, where more than 50% come from low-income households. That hasn’t squashed a love of learning. Newtown students are smart, capable, and thrive through experiential learning activities. The faculty is always looking for ways to keep the students engaged while building their skills to prepare them for future careers.
Kevin Rickard teaches grades two and three in a neighborhood that has some economic challenges. He shared, “I’m retired Navy. This is a second career for me. I had multiple paths I could have followed because of the variety of training and experiences I had in the Navy. I inspected training programs, built training programs, managed training programs. I qualified as a Master Training Specialist and was Curriculum Control Model Manager as well as lead instructor. I wanted to find a career path that could make good use of my Navy training and experience. My daughter was in elementary school. I volunteered at her school for two years before retiring to see if I thought an elementary school teacher would be a good fit… and here I sit, 18 years later.”
At Newtown, Mr. Rickard is an instructional technology specialist. “I work with teachers on how to bring the cool into school. I work with coding, robots, VR, 3D printing and so much more fun learning opportunities. To see the kids ask for more, the smile and excitement on their faces. Questions like, ‘Do I get to take this home? That is what keeps me in the field.”
A Donors Choose Request
As Mr. Rickard explained, “Our bookkeeper came to me and asked if I would help get the school a new shredder. Ours was like 15 years old and on its last legs. Last year, it was used to purge years’ worth of old financial records that really wore it out. She stated the school didn’t have the money to get a shredder in the budget.”
Mr. Rickard then took it upon himself to post a request on Donors Choose for a new, powerful, high-capacity shredder for the school. Newtown has a little more than 400 students and 75 faculty members who used a 20-year-old shredder for years. Mr. Rickard knew they needed a new shredder, given that theirs was on its last legs, but the school was reluctant to purchase one given other expenses.
When asked why Newtown needed a high-capacity microcut shredder, he responded, “Schools produce thousands of sheets of financial records and confidential student papers including individualized education plans, or IEPs. We still use paper time sheets that then get scanned in, but the paper sheets are confidential in nature and have to be shredded. It costs more money to not have one and then hire a company to come pick up all the paper that needs to be shredded and shred it for you.”
GBC Provides Perfect High-capacity Microcut Shredder for Schools
When GBC saw Mr. Rickard’s fundraiser request, they jumped to the charge. GBC comes from a culture of giving back; its parent company, ACCO Brands, does a significant amount of charitable giving, including donating more than 100 TruSens™ air purifiers to schools in Spring Valley, NY.
The GBC team felt that the AutoFeed+ 600X would be the ideal high-capacity microcut shredder for the school. GBC reached out to Mr. Rickard and Newtown Elementary School with the good news that they were going to fulfill the Donors Choose request and donate a shredder to the school. Mr. Rickard was overjoyed.
Feedback on the AutoFeed+ 600X
Mr. Rickard was blown away by GBC’s donation and agreed the AutoFeed+ 600X is the ideal microcut shredder for schools. The shredder far exceeded his goal for capacity and capability. And he wasn’t the only one who was thrilled; Newtown’s bookkeeper and other educators were ecstatic as well. They had grown accustomed to spending hours sitting in front of the school’s old shredder, feeding in just a few sheets at a time. They were eager to experiment with the AutoFeed+ stack and shred tray feature.
“Frees up so much time.”
When they received the shredder and Mr. Rickard unboxed it, he secured volunteers from the staff to try it. He shared what he and the Newtown team loved best about their new high-capacity microcut shredder: “It has to be the AutoFeed and the ability to lock the AutoFeed compartment. This frees up so much time, and the locking prevents unintended access while the papers are shredded. That, by far, has gotten the most attention. People wait to shred until they have a good stack to put in the AutoFeed just to check that out.”
“A beast of a machine.”
One key reason the AutoFeed+ 600X is an ideal microcut shredder for schools is its capacity. It can work just like a regular shredder, allowing users to feed a few papers at a time. But it also has the ability to stack hundreds of pages into it, lock the door, and walk away while it shreds. The machine secures its payload by locking until the shredding job is complete, making it safe to shred sensitive data unsupervised. Shared Mr. Rickard: “It's a beast of a machine that you can both feed into like a regular shredder, or stack up to 600 pages, lock, and walk away while it shreds. Think it will save A TON of time at the end of the year.”
He continued, “Our bookkeeper has more than 1,000 pages of time sheets to shred at the end of the year. Before, she would feed 1,200 sheets 10 at a time. Now, she can fill it twice and walk away.”
Purchase the Best High-capacity Microcut Shredder for Schools
GBC is thrilled to have been able to support Newtown Elementary School by answering Mr. Rickard’s call for a shredder, acting as a sort of fairy godmother in this tale. We are excited to make a difference for the staff and, ultimately, the students at this very special school.
If your company or school is looking for the best high-capacity microcut shredder, you can purchase the AutoFeed+ 600X for your location. At less than $2,000, it’s a smart investment and will save significant time shredding—while adding an extra level of security for all your confidential information