PACK THE BACKPACKS

Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It is time now for our community connection. Right here, Rod k One, the one you trust, brought to you by Arnold Moore and Nie Camp at funeral home. Packed the backpacks and ladies, we are getting rolling you never stop though, we'll get to that moment. We have Debbie and Shelley in here with us. First of all, welcome, thank you.

Hi.

Well, you know everybody's saying, oh my goodness, sakes, school just got out a couple of weeks ago. Well, guess what school starts back in a few weeks too? Not all that long abou in summer? And your work is really three hundred and sixty five days a year, yes it is. Yeah, tell us a little bit about what's going on.

Well, we have been accumulating a cuplies all year long. Wherever we can find a deal. We are buying so that we're prepared for what is coming. It would be impossible for us to buy everything we need for our sprint weekend and packing if we didn't do it all year round.

Oh my goodness, are you cashing in on some big schools out sales?

We're trying.

Usually our biggest sales are right around August when school comes back. That's when they have the biggest sales. But we are still going around and hitting any discounts that are around and looking for any clearance items to make sure that we can stretch our dollars as much as possible.

Yet to be pretty keen shoppers after a while, don't you?

Yes?

Working on is you string budget generosity of others? And oh my gosh, can we get this done? How many kids are helped by this?

We hope about twenty five hundred kids each year, which is actually about thirty percent of the kids in Washington County.

I'm not surprised. Yeah, and that's the entire county. That's just not bartablle. We want to clear that up for everybody, right.

Right all the way from coopan Caney Valley. I'll have the whole county and we do them all, even including the private schools.

Well, very good, very good. We got a fundraiser coming up on the twenty fourth. What's that all about.

We're going to have where you can go and eat at Arby's. It's an all day fundraiser. You just need to let them know that you are there for pack the backpacks, or you can bring in a copy of our flyer. We'll have it on our website and on Facebook and just let them know that you're here for the fundraiser and we'll get I think, yeah, we'll get a portion of.

The proceeds for that. All I have to do is go eat lunch.

Yep, nice and easy.

Yep. I do it every day.

And that's going to be on June twenty fourth.

Oh wow, that's going to be great. You can even do that at the drive thro. You're telling me you got the you know you're doing that as well.

Yep.

Oh my goodness sakes, what a delicious way to raise funds.

Huh exactly, Oh my gosh.

Now, well, when we talk about you mentioned sprint week, I think we know what that is.

Yes, that is when we pack all the packs in about a three day period. We do all of them from pre or from head start all the way up to high school with every school, and we match each child with the school and grade that they are going to be attending in the fall.

This is a well oiled machine.

Right, definitely.

Well, we've been doing it for over twenty years.

Oh okay, you got a system in place, you got Yeah, everybody knows what's going.

On, right. We tweak it. We tweak it all the time.

Now I understand that sometimes some of the new volunteers will take a look at that and they just go, my gosh, they're kind of taking a back on that. And then the next thing, you know, within a couple of hours, they're just flying right there with the veterans, aren't they right.

Definitely, yep.

We're trying to make it easy peasy.

Well, there you go.

We got a lot of backpacks here. I mean you say you normally get you said thirty percent?

Does that twenty five hundred?

It's a lot of pack it it is, yes, lots of number two pencils, definitely. Oh my goodness sakes. So this is going to be a great We have applications open next week, but it's open for a month.

Tele telework.

It's open from June fifteenth to July fifteenth, okay, And you can go online, so you can go to Pack the Backpacks dot org and apply online, or you can go in person to Mary Martha Agape or Concern and we have specific dates that will be at each place, so you can find that information on our website or on Facebook.

This is to apply for a backpack for your child.

Yes, yes, you guys are just all over the place, aren't you.

We tried as busy as BB's in a box, you know, yes, moving around.

Well, we know how expensive school supplies are right now, so we want to help those that really need help providing that for their kids.

That's good, you know, it's good on you, and it's also good for the soul when you guys come together kind of just knuckle down.

And get that sprint week taking care of it. That's where the payoff is, isn't it exactly?

So we'll be at Concern on Mondays and Agape on Fridays. Okay, So the Mary Martha ones are we're trying to do not people don't go there every week, so we're trying to do different days on different weeks, and that's why it's important to go to the website and get the specific days. We'll be there one times.

All right, sounds good, So once again, just follow your Facebook page, follow your website for more information on that, correct, and we'll get everybody applied it needs to know about this and get them into the system, so to speak, and don't forget for June twenty fourth. Bring your appetite, bring your dollars, bring your flyers, and remember to tell the folks, hey, you know I'm out here with the backpack deal, okay, yeah, and then enjoy.

A sandwich or three, and like, I love those.

Fries calling my name right now.

So you really know how to get folks attention.

Now, we try, we try, we do.

This is great.

You know, when I think back in the time when I was in school, which would have been the nineteen sixties, things were a.

Little bit different. Then.

Nobody really said anything if you were kind of having hard luck. But that kind of changed somehow in the eighties and it started to become teasing and old bullying. In the nineties, I saw that progression.

I thought that was just awful.

You know, you try to help somebody else out, you know somebody didn't there, you go on the down low, keep it quiet. Nobody got embarrassed. Well, now we can't really expect that from one another. And this is where this comes in. Every child comes prepared, ready to learn. Every teacher has that off their worry list. Are these children ready to go? How much do I have to go into the closet out of my own funds to make sure everybody's ready to learn exactly.

Yeah, we take pride in the fact that we not only are helping our kids, but helping the teachers not feel that burden as well, because school supplies are expensive for them too.

Oh okay, yeah, you're right.

They you know, they got their own business that they got to take care of, and you know, it breaks their hearts. The teachers, it really breaks their hearts when they see a child coming in just not ready to go. One of the things I do remember there was a little snobbery going on back then. This happened in the seventies. The trapper keeper came out, dude, you're in high cotton with that. I just got a regular Yeah. Yeah, and and but you know, you got the basics, you got everything.

You're going, you're going, you're making it happen.

It's true. And we really want to express our thanks to all of the people that have been supporting us through the years. And this year we have a group of churches that have signed up to do the product of the month. Oh and so we don't have to spend our own money to buy the things. They are donating something every month that's nice of them. So we

Definitely, Ladies make friends.

Well, it's easy when you're helping the kids.

Everybody wants to do the part, you know, that.

Yeah, and that's amazing how this all comes together.

And sometimes you know, we hear pack the backpacks. Well they're giving the kids backpack.

Nobody really knows how that comes to fruition and how much time and love and.

Effort that takes.

And thank you very much on behalf of every kid and every worry parent.

We're very happy to help.

Well, yes, I can tell you guys kind of glow when you come in here talking about.

Well, yeah, but I can tell you're in your happy place, you know, when you talk about how this all works. Nobody goes into the school and it's our face. They kids don't know the difference. They just know that they got a backpack and they're going to school. That's really what they should know. That's all they need to know, exactly. My goodness sakes, Well, you're doing great work here. And once again, what's the website.

We can do it too.

It's www dot pack the Backpacks dot org org.

They've got to remember that.

And Facebook, it's Washington County School Supply Drive. It's a little different, but that's our long name.

I understand.

I understand that that was the first thing I learned when I started interviewing the folks from pack to backpack.

So got two names, but they're all very very important.

Yeah, I want to thank you both for coming in today.

Is there anything I might have missed?

One thing? When you're doing your applications, if you have multiple guardians for your kid, try and coordinate with everybody to make sure only one application gets put in because we do get duplicate applications sometimes and it just makes sure that we don't accidentally delete anyone or that we make duplicates. It helps us make sure that we're getting the right amount of backpacks.

All right, sounds good. Thank you, ladies. I really appreciate you coming by today.

Thank you for having us

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