At the end of each school year, teachers pack up their classrooms and try to figure out where to store their personal supplies. When the next school year approaches, those same teachers go through bins of personal supplies to locate what they need for their new classrooms. For those who find they have too much, the Education Foundation Teacher Swap Meet may be just what they are looking for.

The sign-up period has begun for the 2018 Teacher Swap Meet. The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, July 27 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center. K-12 teachers from all over the region can sign up now through June 30 to reserve a table for selling personal teaching materials. Retail vendors are able to sign up for space as well. Forms to register are available on the Sioux Falls Area Teacher Swap Meet Facebook page, or send an email to TeacherSwapMeet@gmail.com.

This year, the event also will feature “Stop the Bleed” training sessions. Similar to how teachers learn CPR, learning proper bleeding-control techniques can be life-saving. The training includes how to use hands, dressings, and tourniquets to stop uncontrolled bleeding.

“We have had an amazing response over the past years,” event coordinator Amy Scott-Stoltz said. “Teachers from all over South Dakota as well as Nebraska, Minnesota, and Iowa have participated as both sellers and buyers. Everyone is excited about the amazing deals as well as the camaraderie that happens at the event. It has turned into a destination event for teachers.”

Avera sponsors the Education Foundation Teacher Swap Meet, and the Sioux Falls Public Schools Education Foundation hosts it. More than 500 shoppers attended each of the two previous years, Scott-Stoltz said.

The event was started by the Education Foundation as a service for teachers, who spend on average about $500 per year to supply their classrooms, said Foundation Chair Stephanie Gongopoulos. “First-time teachers have really flocked to the event as they have to supply their classrooms before receiving their first paycheck,” Gongopoulos said.

For more information about the Swap Meet, check out the Sioux Falls Area Teacher Swap Meet page on Facebook.