Instead of spending hundreds of dollars, teachers visiting RAFT can walk away with bags full of teaching supplies and project kits for just a few bucks.

The nonprofit organization performs that budget magic by turning other companies' garbage into learning tools. Garbage in, lessons out: RAFT takes the junk and then shows teachers how to use it in the classroom. Teachers walk out with cut-rate supplies and fresh ideas.

RAFT also gives teachers a sense of dignity and respect that's in short supply at schools.

"Teachers aren't treated like professionals. They're paid poorly; they're blamed if anything goes wrong," said Mary Simon, RAFT executive director.

"They don't even have keys to the supply cabinet. They have to ask for someone to unlock it, and then they're only allowed their 'quota.' They're allocated one ream of paper per week. A teacher has to carry the paper to the copier, make copies, and then carry it back."

Simon knows because she taught for 12 years. After retiring she started to think about ways to keep serving teachers and students and came up with RAFT. On the nonprofit's first day 10 years ago a hundred teachers signed up. Nine months later the membership had grown to a thousand teachers. The annual membership fee is $35, with a group discount of $15.

"We get about 325 teachers a week, mostly on Saturdays," Simon said. "RAFT-a-holics! I always knew this is how it would turn out."

The nonprofit has grown more popular as school budgets have shrunk. According to the National Education Association, California ranks first among states in teacher salaries--with an average yearly salary in 2004 of $58,287--but ranks 25th in how much money it spends per student: $7,692.

Last year California eliminated a $1,500 tax credit that reimbursed teachers for buying classroom supplies out of their own pockets. Teachers also lost a federal $250 tax deduction. Education association surveys determined that teachers dig about $443 a year out of their pockets and purses to buy basic classroom supplies like paper and pens.

"They care so much about their students that they'll find a way," Simon said.

Irene Peters, who teaches a third/fourth-grade combination this year at Blue Hills Elementary School in the Cupertino Union School District, started going to RAFT five years ago. "I love RAFT," she says.

"I pretty much go there for ideas," Peters says. She says she bounces ideas off of other teachers there.

"I might see what to me is a pile of junk there, and a teacher standing next to me says, 'Oh, you can do this and that with it,' " Peters says.

And RAFT is saving teachers a bundle of money. Peters says the PTA at her school gives teachers a stipend each year. "We spend way more than that," she says.

She looks for the sale notices that RAFT sends out by email. For example, sometimes the popular Mrs. Grossman stickers she uses in class go on sale. "What I can get at RAFT for $20, I would have to pay $50 for at Michaels."

Peters learned about RAFT when she was working on her credential and heard a teacher rave about it. "I know teachers who go there almost every weekend," she says.

RAFT picks up donations for free. Currently it is expanding into Alameda County and considering building a second warehouse in Sacramento. Teachers drive from as far away as Modesto in carpools once a month to see what's new.

The organization has also widened its audience. Now other nonprofits, like Girl Scout troops and early childcare providers, can stock up at the warehouse.

Butch Coyne, RAFT's media director, said the hardest part is convincing companies that RAFT wants their junk. "We even make mini-books from Lipton tea bags--'peek-a-books,' " he said.

Each kit comes with a sheet detailing instructions and stating which educational standards the project fulfills. Some kits are designed for specific teaching needs, such as special education or pre-kindergarten.

The warehouse is sectioned off by cost--teachers can grab a large bag and fill it with goodies like surplus window blinds that can be turned into flowers for $1 a bag in the dollar aisle or move into more adventurous selections at slightly higher costs.

A Warm, Well-Lighted Place

The Green Room, which smells like glue, lies at the center of the warehouse. There, along with coffee and cookies, teachers find photocopiers, laminators and other tools donated by businesses for assembling their own projects.

RAFT built the room two years ago at the teachers' requests; they wanted to be able to hang out with other educators while working.

Teaching was like being a stay-at-home mom, Simon said. "I remember craving adult conversation. You're in class all the time or monitoring the playground. You don't get much support."

The Green Room is part of what draws Karen Mahoney back to the warehouse--"although I try to stay away from the cookies," she said.

Mahoney has taught science to first- through fifth-graders at Almaden Country School, a private school, for three years now.

"RAFT's a very dependable source for magnets and pipe cleaners and cardboard tubes. I've learned things there," she said. "We made electromagnets using tin foil, cardboard and paper clips and there's always some little guy with tears in his eyes asking if he can take it home." She rattled off a dozen projects her students have undertaken and started laughing.

The school districts know how valuable RAFT is to their teachers.

Peters, who says she was part of a "mass hiring" by the Cupertino Union School District five years ago, says the district paid for RAFT memberships for all its first-year teachers. But these days, with the budget constraints, she says the district only asks which teachers want to be members.

San Jose Unified School District used to pay teachers' RAFT membership fees, but due to its budget cutbacks, it stopped this year. However, Mahoney's private school budget still covers it. She said sometimes there are easier ways to do projects than the RAFT kits present, but visiting the warehouse saves money. "The deal is, I go to Learning Express and get a Legoland book, except I already have tons of Legos and just want the book. I don't want to buy eight books for $80. For 10 cents, 15 cents, 20 cents, I can get a book [at RAFT] without the stuff attached."

RAFT also hosts weekly workshops with topics spanning from Harry Potter Science to the math, art, and science of kaleidoscopes and electrical circuits. The most expensive workshop costs $25 for RAFT members. Others are free.

Low-Tech

Beyond the Green Room lie the goody bins. On a tour of the warehouse, Simon stopped to wave a hand at a barrel of empty DVD cases broken into halves. "These make beautiful spinners!" she said.

Later during the warehouse tour she points out a plastic tube that resembles a 4-inch-long test tube with thick sides.

"That's a preform soda bottle," Coyne said. "They ship them like that to save room, then inflate them at the soda factory."

At RAFT the tubes become time capsules or holiday ornaments.

Scattered throughout are tables exhibiting projects like "chicken tender mummies." The donated materials are turned into projects, which are then bundled into kits for up to 20 students and cost only $1. On Saturdays volunteers staff the tables to demonstrate how the kits work.

"Rather than reading about magnets, the students and teachers can actually have magnets," Simon said.

The weirdest donation, they said after a few minutes' thought, was pallets and pallets of rubber eggs with tiny dimples in one end from Palo Alto's Klutz Press, publisher of The Rubber Chicken Book. The company wanted its eggs undimpled, said Coyne.

High-Tech

Tucked away into a back corner of the warehouse are top-of-the-line Pentium computers stuffed with software donated by Adobe, Microsoft and other companies. A teacher can buy a Pentium 4 with all the gizmos for $80. A lower-end Pentium 3 runs $30, complete with monitor and Windows '98 or 2000.

The computers are donated, then repaired if needed, and the hard drives are erased. Adobe's Pagemaker costs $35 for a teacher. Everyone else can expect to pay $300 at retail.

Twice a month the nonprofit conducts technology workshops to show teachers how to create, for example, online student portfolios and use PowerPoint to play Jeopardy with their classes.

"Traditionally, computers are used to keep smart kids busy," Simon said. At RAFT the goal is to turn the computer into a teaching tool rather than a "make work" solution.

People-Tech

The nonprofit organization had $1.8 million in expenses in 2003, according to IRS filings, and took in $2.3 million in revenue, mostly public donations and government grants. Keeping a tight budget means a small paid staff of nine people. Literally thousands of volunteers make RAFT work. Every day people drop by to assemble some of the 20,000 kits the nonprofit sells each year. "Parents come in to volunteer, and they ask, 'Does my kid's teacher come here?'" Coyne said.

As Cisco is celebrating its 20th year of philanthropy this year, the company has asked each of its employees to donate 51Ž2 hours of service to RAFT--which adds up to 20 years' worth of hours.

Simon paused during the warehouse tour to survey volunteers unloading a new donation of filing cabinets, others sorting stickers into kits and teachers browsing the bins and tables.

"A lot of learning goes on here," she said.

Resource Area For Teachers (RAFT), is located at 1355 Ridder Park Drive in San Jose. For more information, visit www.raft.net or call 408.451.1420.