Grace Millard Donating Markers to Yale New Haven Health Donation] Grace Millard donates books and art supplies to a hospital in New Haven, Connecticut (Image: Grace Millard/Points of Light)
When Grace Millard was 14, discarded pencils, half-used notebooks and unwanted art supplies were an everyday sight in the halls of her Connecticut high school. That realisation led Millard and her classmate Jordan Chen to create Restoring Rainbows in 2023, a youth-led nonprofit built around collecting, restoring and redistributing school supplies. Just two years later, Millard, now 16, is co-CEO of an organisation with more than 200 branches across 52 countries and around 1,000 teen volunteers. As a 14-year-old freshman, she noticed pencils, notebooks and art materials being abandoned in classrooms and cafeterias, even though other schools and community centres were seeking donations of similar supplies.
What caught her attention was not simply the waste, but the contrast surrounding it. Schools and community centres in nearby communities were looking for basic supplies that families could not always afford, while perfectly usable materials were being thrown away. The initiative has already kept tens of thousands of supplies from landfills while getting them into the hands of children who need them. Millard’s idea began with a simple observation inside her own school.
Because they often carry traces of their previous owners, from familiar characters to handwritten notes and doodles, books have become one of Millard’s favourite items to restore. For Millard, the goal is therefore not simply to save supplies from landfills, but to make sure those resources continue to have value in another child’s hands. The organisation does more than collect unwanted materials. Donated pencils, books, notebooks and art supplies are cleaned, repaired and prepared before being redistributed to schools, after-school programmes and community centres. Millard and Chen initially handled much of the restoration themselves, developing a process that could turn materials destined for rubbish bins into usable resources once again. Before redistribution, personal information is removed to protect privacy. The model creates a direct link between reducing waste and supporting children who may lack access to school or creative materials.