The Shelby County Youth Assistance Program is partnering with Children’s Bureau to collect and distribute school supplies.
A collection drive will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 16-17 at Walmart.
Donors are asked to give the following items: loose leaf paper, notebooks, pocket folders, three-ring binders, pencils, ink pens, glue sticks, glue bottles, pink erasers, rulers, highlighters, dry erase markers, headphones/ear buds, sanitizer wipes, boxes of tissue, composition notebooks, pencil boxes & pouches, backpacks, crayons, colored pencils, children’s scissors, reusable water bottles and hand sanitizer.
“These are items common across all school districts,” said Melissa O’Connor with the Youth Assistance Program. “We will accept [items not on our list] if they are general school items. We will also be purchasing items to supplement the list as well.”
Items for donation must be new.
“The costs of these supplies averages from $30 to $100, not including the cost of course fees,” said a press release. “Many families cannot afford to purchase these supplies. Often, teachers spend out of pocket to ensure the children in their classrooms have the needed supplies.”
Distribution will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 24 at Blue River Memorial Park. Children must be present in order to receive distribution.
Donations from the Back to School Drive will be available to children residing in the following school districts: Shelbyville Central Schools, Northwestern Consolidated Schools, Southwestern Consolidated Schools, and Shelby Eastern Schools.
The organizations are seeking volunteers from agencies and community partners to assist with the drive and distribution. Volunteers are asked to sign up for an hour long time slot to serve on those days.
“I would love to see all spots filled,” said Children’s Bureau Liaison Kimberly Russell in an email. “If you or you and others in your agency/ group could give an hour or two and assist in collecting supplies this would be a HUGE help.”
Email Russell at krussell @childrensbureau.org to volunteer.
O’Connor said this is not the first time they’ve partnered with the Children’s Bureau.
“This is the first time we are partnering with the Children’s Bureau to do the back to school drive and distribution and we are dong the school supply drive at Walmart for the first time, and the distribution at BRMP for the first time, but we’ve previously done back to school supply distribution pre-COVID,” she said. “We did that in the past at First Friday events.”
Both organizations focus on child safety.
“We are both agencies that work in the areas of prevention, and so we often times work together on various things in the community with children and families,” she said. “This year we decided to partner to sponsor a back to school supply drive and distribution to help support a lot of the families we work with.”
“We are recognizing how the previous year of COVID, financial, social and emotional issues have impacted families in our community, and we really wanted to try to help equip children in the community with school supplies they’re going to need as they return to the classrooms this year,” she continued.
