THE SCROLL

Here, we dive into our fourth 'rebrand' in 18 months.

In October of 2020, an art teacher in Brooklyn reached out to us with a concerning message. The teacher told us that some of her students - who were learning remotely - didn’t have notebooks or sketchbooks to complete their lessons. She was reaching out to see if we could make a donation of supplies to her classroom.  We immediately thought, ‘yes’, we’d love to donate a few journals and school supplies to her and her students. When we asked how many students she was teaching, we were surprised to find out that this teacher, alone, has close to 200 students.  As we paused and thought about it, we knew this teacher wasn’t the only educator in this situation, and we wanted to find a way to do something about it.  A few weeks later, we were able to donate to her classroom - 200 journals and 200 sets of markers. After making the donation, we told her to let us know if she knew of any other teachers in a similar situation.  That day, she posted in a Facebook group for NYC teachers, asking if anyone else’s students lacked supplies to complete their lessons. The response was overwhelming.  On January 15th, we got in the car and delivered journals to four more teachers, starting in the Bronx and finishing in Brooklyn. These teachers serve more than 800 students in the NYC metro, and now, each one of their students has a notebook they can call their own.  Above all else, we want to thank these five teachers who reached out to us asking for supplies. They have incredibly hard jobs in normal times let alone during a pandemic. Instead of waiting it out and hoping for things to go back to normal, these teachers showed action. They stood up for their students and got them the supplies they needed to learn.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “I can't wait to share them with my students. I know they will be filling them with drawings, and writing, to express their ideas and feelings. I'm so glad to be able to give my students this lovely surprise, in the middle of the winter, in the middle of an extremely tough school year." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "We are so grateful and cannot wait to distribute this incredible surprise to our scholars. Thank you truly for bringing joy to our community during such a trying time." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Teachers to thank: Niaren Desilva Elizabeth Kinkel Eleni Garasimou Courtney Watson  Haya Moline  

We often felt like the note-takers in the room at workplace meetings. So much so that we jokingly called ourselves The Scribes. We created the_scribes slack channel as a place to chat as friends. At the time, we had no idea that The Scribes would turn into so much more than a chatroom. As our friendship developed, we talked a lot about our career plans, our goals, and our passion for entrepreneurship. In our former jobs in the eCommerce industry, we were often reminded that starting a business was more attainable now than ever.  Here we are, the note-takers in the room with a passion for entrepreneurship. Why not offer the world a better journal?  Worst case, we fall on our face and walk away with a handful of lessons learned.  We wanted to create something people would enjoy using, but more importantly, something people would be proud to use.  Our company’s mission From early on, we wanted to build a business that would allow us to give back.  We launched the business in November of 2019 and it was reborn in March 2020 when we dedicated ourselves to it. This happened to be the start of a global pandemic, but that didn’t necessarily phase us. We knew we were more than an eCommerce brand. We were a company that made a difference, and this was an opportunity to showcase that.  We make journals for all writers. Whether you are a note-taker like us, a to-do list aficionado, or someone who enjoys a nice gratitude diary, we have a journal for you. We make journals for people with something to say.  When you buy one of our journals, you join our team, helping us make a difference in the world. Writing tools designed in NYC  We offer a wide variety of journals and are continuing to expand our product line with other productivity tools. All of our products are sold on our website and shipped to your home or office on time and packaged nicely.  We also have a thriving B2B business, selling personalized journals to companies big and small. We work in lockstep with our corporate partners to design the perfect journals for their team. Whether you want to buy 50 journals for a board meeting or 500 journals to use in your global recruiting efforts, we are the journal company for you. We treat your brand as our own, and focus relentlessly on customer care throughout the process.  But what sets our B2B business apart from others comes back to our mission. If you are a corporate client and you place an order with us, we match that order with a gift of journals to the cause of your choice. We make the gift together, in partnership, and you’ve just turned an order of journals into something much more meaningful. We’ve worked with over 20 corporate partners, providing customized journals for their teams. Some of these partners include: Kirkland & Ellis Prime Clerk Atlantic ServisFirst Bank OAR Corporation Here at The Scribes, we want you to have the best journal for your goals. To know that your purchase aides someone in need with their goals is an added bonus. Creativity and productivity should be shared. The Scribes makes that notion a reality. Buy one, give one For every journal sold, we donate one. We’ve donated thousands of journals to schools, juvenile detention centers, and community organizations, all thanks to our customers. To date, our list of non-profit partners includes: The Boys and Girls Club The Foundation for Education in Honduras NYC Department of Education Girls Who Listen The Women in Defense Initiative Free2Teach Morris Elementary in Huntsville, Alabama Tucson High School in Tucson, Arizona Vicksburg High School in Vicksburg, Mississippi Our non-profit partners inspire us to do more each day.  One partner in particular, The Foundation for Education in Honduras, has really shown us what it means to do the right thing and strive to make the world a better place.  FEIH’s Founder and Director, Ramiro Ocasio, has always had a passion for serving others, and it started by sending small amounts of money back to his home country around the holidays to help families who were struggling.  As more and more people came in contact with Ramiro’s passion for helping those in Honduras, FEIH formalized as a foundation and has since built 13 schools and counting across the country of Honduras. This gives some of the most impoverished students the chance to go to school and receive an education.  After hearing Ramiro’s story and learning about the difference they are making, we donated 3,000 journals to the foundation. Every student in their school system now has his or her own journal.  We will continue to support FEIH by donating journals and helping to make a difference in these students’ lives. Staying true during disruptive times It goes without saying that the Covid-19 pandemic shook a lot of things up. Everyone was affected. None more so than those on the front lines. First responders and essential workers became heroes without capes. Throughout this disruptive time, we’ve doubled down on our give-back efforts. Staying true to our mission of serving others has never been more important. We knew that by doing this people would support us in return. Here are just a few things we’ve done to support those who need it most.  Supporting Teachers We know teachers spend far too much of their own money on school supplies for their classrooms.  We launched The Essential Scribe and donated to causes like Free2Teach, a supply bank for teachers to shop from at no cost.  Supporting Remote Learning For the safety of our younger generation, many school systems are going remote. What most people don’t understand is that going remote doesn’t mean that students don’t need supplies.  In fact, they need more supplies than ever to emulate the classroom experience they are used to. We’ve partnered with organizations like The Boys and Girls Club and Morris Elementary to supply journals to students that will be received through socially-distant supply drops. Supporting Causes that fight for equal rights We partnered with Paige’s Candle Co of Brooklyn to bundle The Crosby Scribe and an Earl Gray Candle. What better way to relax and reflect on the day then lighting a nice candle and putting thoughts to paper. A portion of all proceeds will be donated to The National Urban League, an organization that supports equal rights for all, especially for those struggling in urban areas.   We’re more than just journals. We’re a company that gives back. The impact this has on all of us is something we can carry with us forever. Want product updates and company news as they happen? Subscribe to our newsletter.

Huntsville, Alabama  On March 14th, I came home to Huntsville for my cousin's engagement party. I had a return flight to New York on the 17th, and I was eager to get back to the city to begin working on The Scribes full-time.  In the span of a day or two, news continued to develop around the danger of Covid-19, and it was pretty evident that traveling back to New York wouldn’t happen anytime soon. It then became clear that I’d be spending more time in Huntsville than originally anticipated.  The other Scribes, Pooja and Alden, were in the same boat, too - Pooja in New Jersey and Alden in Maine.  We set up daily calls to discuss our business, and we talked about how we could sustain in the midst of a pandemic. Our inventory was scattered across our apartments in New York City, many of our corporate leads were reconsidering their orders, and we weren’t entirely sure what was next.  One thing we were sure of was our mission. We are a brand that gives back, and we knew that if we stayed focused on serving others, people would support us.  In the days to follow, we decided to start a campaign in the Huntsville community - a community that had already shown us a great deal of support since launching the business in November 2019. By the final weeks of March, we had finalized the designs for The Huntsville Scribe, and we decided that for every journal we sold, we’d be donating one to students in The Huntsville Community who needed resources most.    Fast forward a few months, and the Huntsville Scribe has been our best seller over the last 90 days. With the support of many individuals and businesses, we have sold over 750 journals to the Huntsville community.  From the three of us at The Scribes, we want to say thank you. Thank you for buying our journals, leaving positive reviews, sharing us on social media, spreading the word to family and friends, and allowing us the opportunity to give back to our community. With your support, we’ve been able to donate journals to Morris Elementary, The Boys and Girls Club, and the Women in Defense Fund (TN Valley Chapter.) We have more journals to sell, and many more journals to give. We look forward to your support along the way!  - Mike, Co-Founder   You can purchase The Huntsville Scribe here. 

Making a difference in Honduras Since starting The Scribes, we’ve been extremely lucky to meet some incredible people that have not only shown an interest in The Scribes, but given us an opportunity to make a difference that none of us could have imagined.  Through friends and family in New York City, we were able to meet Ramiro Ocasio, Jordan Elkin, and other board members of the Foundation for Education in Honduras (FEIH). Since 2014, FEIH has built 12 schools (with #13 under construction), in high-need areas of Honduras where many children have limited access to educational opportunities. These schools have supported over 2,000 children and 50,000 community members, making a huge impact in Honduras and beyond.  We are incredibly excited and proud to announce that we are partnering with FEIH to donate 3,000 journals to students and teachers in Honduras. By gifting journals to these schools, we hope that we can make a small difference in the lives of these students and teachers.  “FEIH operates in communities where many students attend school without basic school supplies, making achievement of learning objectives virtually impossible. FEIH has proudly partnered with The Scribes to provide each student a beautiful journal where their thoughts and ideas can flourish. Together, FEIH and The Scribes can create change by fostering improved educational outcomes and encouraging students to dream big.” - Ramiro Ocasio, Co-Founder, FEIH When you buy a Scribe, we hope you know that you are making a difference. Not only will a journal help you be more productive, creative, and thoughtful, but your purchase allows us to give back in a big way.  This is Part One of a long and meaningful relationship between The Scribes and FEIH. 

Alexandria, Virginia December 2019 Every year, 200,000+ children in America enter our criminal justice system. Time spent in a facility is time missed in the real world. News, politics, new technology, new music - all of this is missed while one is incarcerated. With this disconnect from the outside world, a juvenile detention center is meant to be a place that is free from distraction, allowing the residents to really focus on themselves. Juvenile detention centers place a heavy emphasis on education and positive habit-building, in hopes of transforming once-troubled children into more responsible and productive members of society. At the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center (NVJDC) in Alexandria, VA, it’s not about “serving time,” but instead, serving children.  It is constantly said to our residents: “You have limited time with us, what are you going to do with this time?” At NVJDC, residents are presented with several educational, psychoeducational, social, therapeutic and professional learning opportunities including employment within the facility, interview prep, job fairs, resume building and community service projects. Time at the NVJDC is spent looking forward, and making the corrections necessary that will prepare the residents to succeed upon re-entering society.  At The Scribes, we want to help support the important work that so many are doing to transform the lives of our at-risk youth, and we have done so by donating journals to every child and young adult in the facility. By donating these journals, we hope to inspire creativity in the lives of these residents, by giving them a place to express themselves freely. Since donating the journals, we’ve learned that The Original Scribe has become a place for school work, music lyrics, poems, letters home and 2020 goals. The NVJDC has even incorporated The Scribes journal into their unique behavioral management program that is based on creative journaling, pro-social development and skill building.  At each level, residents are given a few topics to think about, and they are able to capture these thoughts in their Scribe. We are so inspired by the stories we’ve heard from the residents of the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center and we are honored to be a part of their come-back story.     “The Scribes supports our ultimate goal of providing a safe, enriching environment for the most at-risk children to begin to heal and thrive. Journal keeping allows our adolescents to reflect and dream, both of which are key factors in a young person’s developmental process. By incorporating The Scribes into our required residential programs, we have another tool to support our work of creating a space where rehabilitation is possible. I am grateful for the donation from The Scribes, as it solidifies our commitment to the growth and development of the young people in our community.” - Johnitha McNair, Executive Director     To encourage the behavior of writing, thinking, and dreaming, The Scribes will work tirelessly to ensure that more juvenile detention centers, all over the country, will have the resources necessary for their residents to be their best. We look forward to your support along the way.