It sounds like you just made quite a few kids very happy, even with notebooks and pens. Even in the U.S., school supplies are a needful thing and most parents either have to buy them or hope that there is someone who is donating them. So generosity in any form is a good thing.

I've had similar experiences with fees, but from putting in money and converting to STEEM rather taking STEEM out and converting to dollars. It takes too many steps, and I hope there's an easier way to do created fairly soon. I know some regulations get in the way, but the way it is, it will discourage a lot of people from wanting to adopt any cryptocurrency out of Bitcoin or some of the others that you can buy directly.