One Million Crayons

Local Nonprofit Crayon Collection Sets Guinness World Record

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

On Sunday, Aug. 11, Pacific Palisades-founded nonprofit Crayon Collection collected 1,009,500 crayons to donate to Los Angeles Unified School District teachers—enough to set a Guinness World Record.

Crayon Collection, now an international organization, was founded in 2009 by Highlands resident Sheila Morovati to support local teachers, the environment and arts education by donating gently used crayons collected from restaurants and hotels to teachers. The first restaurant that Morovati worked with to collect used crayons was Cafe Vida.

“This was a dream come true,” Morovati told the Palisadian-Post after the record-setting collection event. “The faces of the teachers were worth every single last effort that we made.”

The feat was accomplished in an eight-hour window at Westfield Culver City, with the one millionth crayon counted by Christine Simmons, COO of the WNBA’s LA Sparks basketball team.

Also part of the festivities, artist Yassi Mazandi constructed a maze out of the boxed crayons, which was then deconstructed as crayons were handed out.

Morovati explained that the teachers had a sense of relief that she could not describe in words.

Each year, teachers across the nation use their own money to purchase school supplies. Crayon Collection aims to ease this stress by providing crayons, one of the materials teachers need for the school year.

More than 700 teachers lined up to receive a year’s supply of crayons.

Senator Henry Stern presented Morovati with a Senate Certificate of Recognition.

“Crayon Collection has managed to solve two big problems at once—reducing pollution and helping to lighten the load on our overburdened teachers,” Stern said in a statement. “As a former teacher and environmental attorney, I am so grateful there are people like Sheila out there leading the way.”

Morovati explained that she hopes that other organizations are inspired to plan similar events. She worked with another organization to craft a lesson plan for teachers to use to collect crayons, which is available on the Crayon Collection website.

Since its inception, Crayon Collection, which was formally recognized by the LAUSD Board with a Certificate of Appreciation for its work in the classroom, has donated over 10 million crayons to local teachers and schools.

Morovati and Crayon Collection do not show signs of slowing down: “Already my board members are telling me we should try to beat our own record next year,” Morovati said.