Second-grade teacher Cindy Ali scored big for Watkins Elementary School when she turned a simple act of shopping for craft supplies into a request for help.

``I was shopping for things for students to make presents for their parents,'' Ali said about her trip to Target in Aventura. ``I couldn't buy it all. I had a whole cart of stuff.''

So Ali decided to ask the store for help. And she's glad she did.

Ali was given a $50 gift card donation that day, and an application for the First Book Program, which provides new books to children in need.

``I think that working with limited resources, sometimes we are forced to go outside to the community to better educate the students,'' Ali said.

Target provided the Pembroke Park magnet school with $500 for books, and Ali selected ``boxes and boxes'' for the school's library. The retailer also offered services for a school beautification project.

With the principal's approval, Ali asked Target representatives to liven up the gray cafeteria walls. About a dozen volunteers came to the school with paint and brushes and created a colorful mural on the cafeteria wall, which the school's art teacher Debra Freeman sketched out in advance.

The mural, titled Watkins Café, depicts dressed-up figures dining in an upscale setting. The students, Ali said, ``were so surprised.''

``It sets a real soft environment,'' she said of the normally boisterous cafeteria.

This is the second year the Aventura store participated in the First Book Program, said Jill Wolter, who works for Target. Last year the store issued $2,500 to local schools and planted flowers and plants on campuses.

``We had a great time and kids saw us painting and giving back,'' Wolter said of the experience.

Ali's next stop, she said, is to a bookstore to try to drum up more books for the kids to keep for themselves.

``You know the old saying, `It takes a village to raise a child'? '' she asked. ``I'm a whole-hearted believer in that. It definitely cannot be done alone.''

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