PACK THE BACK PACK

Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It is time now for our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust. And today we're doing things a little bit differently as far as our webcam is concerned, because well we've had a little malfunction, so I'm doing this with a little handheld. So if you're watching this on Facebook Live, hey, great. First of all, I introduce yourself, young lady.

I am Debbie Laroche. I am the President of the Washington County School Supply Drive.

Oh my goodness sake.

Hi am Shelley Davidson.

I'm the Secretary of Washington County School Supply Drive or Pack the buttpacks.

This is a year round thing, isn't it. Oh yes, oh yeah, you just finished and now you're starting up again.

Correct. We have to start accumulating the immediate supplies. The volumes are so great that there is no way we could wait until like next June to start buying things, and so we are actively out there scrounging looking for bargains of things that have been marked down on clearance and are just waiting for us to snatch them up.

Well, how's it going so far?

It's going great.

We've been finding some backpacks for three to four dollars and we ended up doing about twenty five twenty sorry two and fifty nine backpacks last year, which is about thirty percent of the kids in Washington County.

So and that number never really goes down to no.

No, it usually only goes up.

So we're definitely busy getting supplies raised and finding finding deals.

Now you've got a fundraiser coming up, and it looks like it could be some fun and I like putting fun and fundraising. Yes.

Absolutely, we are going to participate in Celebrate Giving on November the fourteenth at the Community Center and we will be there with a lot of other organizations and we are going to be stuffing the bus for next year.

Stuffing the bus. What kind of bus? Were we having? A school bus? Yes?

Yes, well it will be a cardboard but.

Exactly, and we'll be stuffing it with pens, pencils, highlighters, black or dry erase markers. There will be a list on our Facebook page and we'll have posters up around town. But we're going to try to stuff the bus and work on getting those supplies.

Rais well, this is great, and of course with the event that's going on that always draws a big crowd anyway down there at the center, and it's going to be great to see this in action, and I would like to see everybody participate to the best of their ability.

Definitely, definitely my goodness sake.

So that is putting the fun in it, isn't it.

Yes, And just to remind everyone, it's free to go in or celebrate giving, so you don't have to actually bring money, but we will be able to take card donations and cash donations.

This is our first time trying card donations.

At the event. Well, there you go. You know, a lot of folks carry that plastick around. Now when you do this, you kind of need a little help. But you've had volunteers for a good long time, but you could probably use a few new faces.

Yes, yes we could. We had a wonderful turnout this year of volunteers. Sometimes up to one hundred, one hundred and twenty five people came to help us on our biggest event. But even now, we have all of these products that are coming into our storage facility and they have to be unboxed, counted, and put in regular boxes so that we know exactly what we have in our inventory.

So how do we how do we sign up to volunteer?

Well, we can do it through our website and the Facebook page. If someone wants to volunteer with us, there are comment places that they can just say, hey, we don't have set schedules at this time, but we will be doing it sometimes during the day, during the week, and sometimes in the evening or on a Saturday morning or something like that.

Oh very good. Now I saw something on the cheat sheet. It's a school supply of the month. What is that?

So we have started partnering with the churches in the area. We have four churches right now that are helping us do kind of like a school supply drive. We have First Presbyterian Disciples, Christian Church, Friday Night Church, and Saint Luke's Episcopal Church that are helping us raise school supplies.

Of course, the battle cry.

Is get to let out, Yes, and they can. They can also.

Donate at RSU where ours where ours storage facility is. We do have a blue bin in their lobby that you can also drop off supplies at.

So right downtown huh, Yes, centrally located. Yes and uh. And once again, this big event that we're having is coming up, would celebrate Giving. That is on November fourteenth. We're just a skirt, just a scant month.

Away, right, a month away. It's on a Thursday night, uh huh, which is different this year. It has been close to Giving Tuesday, but they wanted to try to separate that. And that is sponsored by the Kawanas Club and so they are have as last count I heard forty eight different organizations will be there to talk about their mission and you get some support and maybe win some prizes.

Well, this is going to be a lot of fun. And you know, we were blessed with such a community or volunteerism is you really don't have to push too hard. Folks just kind of step up and pitch in. But it's nice to be recognized, isn't it. Oh? Yes, Yes, And then folks who might not know your story. This is the opportunity to get the story told.

That's right. I go into stores all the time, and especially if I start filling my cart with something, you know, the same thing forty or fifty, they'll go, well, what are you going to do with all of those things? And I tell them our story and they don't a lot of them do not know that that we exist. Even right here in town boy, you.

Know, someone's already thinking, maybe you're going to be breaking bad with crayon.

Well, I usually amassed if I'm a teacher, Yes, that's the first question.

Yes, I imagine so, because unfortunately our teachers have to kind of break into their own wallets and take care of things they do.

They do with things that they need that just don't come in. They they feel that everybody should have that supply, and so they supplement it out of their own pocket in many cases.

And when the kids get the backpacks, yes, that's got to just feel your art.

It's the best part because you get to see their faces just light up, seeing what their backpack is going to look like for that year, and seeing all the supplies.

That they're going to get to use.

That's one of the reasons why we do what we do is so that the kids can have their backpacks and be ready to go, ready to start the school year fully, able to participate in class. And it also helps the teachers so they don't fill that burden to take the funds out of their pockets.

To supply the supplies, you know, with the kids.

And I remember this very very well as a child. Not everybody went to school equipped the same way, yes, and they didn't have things like pack the backpacks in every community. Yes, So you know, this way everybody gets pretty much an even start.

Yes.

And we actually have had where we'll have someone through and then their kids will come through as well.

And we have a lot of our people.

That got help from us when they were kids come back and volunteer with us. So it's been it's great seeing like the generational help that we were able to help give people a leg up to you know, actually be able to be involved in class and potentially help the rest of their family when they get older.

That's a lesson that never gets old, is learning how to help.

Yes.

And you know you've got a great organization here where can folks find out more about you?

I'm sorry, Shelley.

There we go www dot pacth Backpacks dot org, or you can check our Facebook page which is at Washington County School Supply Drive.

I know we're known as.

Pack the Backpacks, but that's our official name, so if you look for that on Facebook, we do keep that pretty updated on what we're doing.

And when we need help.

All right, on November fourteenth, remember get down to the center, look for the school bus and let's stuff it with packed backpack ladies. I want to thank you both for being here with us today.

Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen. You have been watching and listening to our community connection on K one, the one you trust. Tien Howell