With more than 12 million followers on Instagram, actress Kristen Bell has been using her celebrity status to help teachers in need.

Every week for the last six months, Bell has been sharing a teacher’s story on Instagram for a project she calls #FeatureTeacherFriday.

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It’s #FeaturedTeacherFriday 📚❤️!! Brooke emailed me to nominate her friend of 25 years, Emily. She told me that when they set up Emily’s classroom this year, she had little beyond tables and chairs and bought the rest of her supplies herself. SO! Let’s send Emily some love and support! Here’s a little about her: “I’m a first year kindergarten teacher at a small Title I school in Genesee County in Flint, MI. Being a Title I school means that a majority of our students live below the federal poverty line. Some of our families struggle to have their basic needs met. Although most of our students reside in the city of Flint, our school is located in a neighboring town. They ride the bus to school, with the earliest pickup being 5:58am and the latest stop being close to 5:30pm. These amazing kiddos spend a majority of their waking hours at school, or traveling to and from school. This is just one of the many reasons that it is so important to make my classroom feel like a home away from home for my students. We call our classroom our “house” and we are all family. Our rules and routines are centered around being good to each other and supporting each other the way families should. Our mission at Woodland Park Academy is to “Create Relationships to Change the World.” For me, fostering these relationships means giving 100 hugs a day, checking in on older students on my lunch, telling students every day that I love them, and listening when they have something to say. It means never losing sight of how even the smallest act of kindness or understanding may change someone’s life. Our school is small and our teachers have some of the lowest paid salaries in our area. Being a first year teacher in an almost empty classroom has been challenging. However, everyday we try to fill our classroom with curiosity, excitement, and love! Please know that any donations received will directly impact the lives of my little learners and I am forever grateful for the support!!” If you feel inspired to help, her wishlist will be in my bio! 🧠🙏🏻📚❤️

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For every one of the posts, Bell highlights the teacher’s need for school supplies and asks her followers to help out—and her call to action has proven to be extremely effective.

One elementary school teacher from Belmont, North Carolina was inundated with packages after she was featured on Bell’s Instagram back in May.

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“I’ve received over a couple hundred items so far, and they are still trickling in every day,” Riggs told WCNC reporters the very same week. “I even got a gift from the UK and Zimbabwe!”

More recently, Bell featured a first grade teacher from Flint, Michigan named Emily Mayberry.

Within a week of appearing on Bell’s social media page, she experienced the same relief: she was flooded with gifts, packages, and supplies from her Amazon wishlist.

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“The generosity of others is overwhelming,” wrote the school on Facebook. “Gratitude is the quality of feeling and experiencing thankfulness and appreciation. We are beyond thankful and appreciative to Kristen Bell and her #FeaturedTeacherFriday for their outpouring of love, support and dedication by enriching and changing the lives of our students through their generous donations.”

If you want to nominate yourself or a teacher to be featured on Bell’s Instagram, you can send an email to [email protected]. Or, you may be inspired to help a teacher who has not been featured, by going to Donors Choose and surprising an educator with a donation at the nonprofit’s website.

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