Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2: It is time now for our community connection right here
Speaker 2: on K one, the one you just brought you by
Speaker 2: Arnoll Moore in the camp at funeral home. And it
Speaker 2: is always great. Is he familiar faces today? We've got
Speaker 2: our friends from pack to backpacks. We got Cindy and
Speaker 2: Pat both in here today popping yellow mine. Goodness sakes,
Speaker 2: we can use some Sunshine school bunch.
Speaker 1: Of yellow for pack the backpacks.
Speaker 2: And wow, a lot going this is This is crunch time,
Speaker 2: isn't it.
Speaker 3: We just finished crunch time.
Speaker 2: Wow, So maybe that's why we were kind of moving slow, coming.
Speaker 3: Back here very slowly.
Speaker 4: It is a sprint weekend.
Speaker 5: I actually a sprint week yes, calling it because we're
Speaker 5: spreading from place to place to make it happen.
Speaker 6: Pat and I feel like we are getting a little
Speaker 6: old and we would really like to turn some of
Speaker 6: the rains over to some younger people. So if some
Speaker 6: younger people are listening to this and they would love
Speaker 6: to get involved and pack the backpacks, we would love
Speaker 6: to hear from them.
Speaker 2: Before we get the folks signing up. Let's tell us
Speaker 2: what this is all about. Tell us what we do well.
Speaker 5: Actually, what we do is provide specific school supplies, a
Speaker 5: full backpack of everything by school, by grade, by teacher,
Speaker 5: by gender.
Speaker 3: Not by teacher.
Speaker 4: We do it by a group of teachers by grade.
Speaker 1: Bye.
Speaker 5: Great, all the supplies that are asked for for a
Speaker 5: particular school year, and they get a new backpackage year
Speaker 5: full of all of the supplies that they need so
Speaker 5: that they are equipped to begin a new year and
Speaker 5: be successful.
Speaker 1: Well, that's great.
Speaker 6: And the only reason I say not by teacher is
Speaker 6: because every now and then, when students go into the classroom,
Speaker 6: the teacher will ask them to bring a few other
Speaker 6: supplies that are specific just to them, and we cannot
Speaker 6: get that pacific pack said.
Speaker 3: We do a lot as it is you heavy lifting, yea,
Speaker 3: the heavy lifting.
Speaker 6: Yes, And this year we packed two thousand and six
Speaker 6: hundred and nine backpacks, and we did about one hundred
Speaker 6: and fifty three late backpacks.
Speaker 3: But Pats, you want to tell them about the late backpack.
Speaker 5: Well, actually, when if someone is unable to sign up
Speaker 5: online or if they forget the date, you know, after,
Speaker 5: then we provide what we call generic supplies that not necessarily.
Speaker 4: With the backpack.
Speaker 5: We have a way to a back or sack to
Speaker 5: give them so that they are prepared as well. But
Speaker 5: it's not specific grade by school of grade. It's just
Speaker 5: a generic.
Speaker 3: We give them what we have.
Speaker 6: We don't go out and buy things for the generic backpacks.
Speaker 1: So this is you know, okay, here you go, and
Speaker 1: we did.
Speaker 5: As Cindy said, we had one hundred and fifty three
Speaker 5: people that walked in.
Speaker 4: Either I'm just moving to town.
Speaker 5: Or I forgot, or I have another person that's going
Speaker 5: to be living with me, or I changed schools and
Speaker 5: I didn't do it, or this is the.
Speaker 1: First time I found myself in this situation.
Speaker 6: And unfortunately that seems to have happened quite a bit
Speaker 6: this year. We've had quite a few families that this
Speaker 6: is their first time to request back.
Speaker 2: Tax, and you know, if it's your first time, you
Speaker 2: don't know how it works. And then you ask all
Speaker 2: the questions in the world, and sometimes you just got
Speaker 2: to go through the fire a little bit. Now you
Speaker 2: have an assembly line once we do the shopping, and
Speaker 2: I understand it.
Speaker 1: We've covered this before. The shopping never stops.
Speaker 4: This shopping never.
Speaker 5: As a matter of fact, during spent weekend, I happened
Speaker 5: to be at Walmart doing something for the day, and
Speaker 5: school supplies had already started being reduced in prices, it's
Speaker 5: time to get them.
Speaker 6: We ask people all the time, you know, to please
Speaker 6: donate supplies to us, and we're really fortunate we have
Speaker 6: a couple of groups and a lot of churches are
Speaker 6: deciding they choose a product a month that we will
Speaker 6: ask for, let's say black markers, and so all the
Speaker 6: churches that are involved give us black markers and that
Speaker 6: truly helps us a lot. So if there is a
Speaker 6: church group or another civic group or a group that
Speaker 6: wants to do this, we can let them know what
Speaker 6: product we're trying to find for that month, and that
Speaker 6: helped us a.
Speaker 3: Lot this pasture.
Speaker 1: Mike, I'm not sure.
Speaker 5: How many churches were involved, five or six. Five or
Speaker 5: six churches stepped up this year. And we also have
Speaker 5: a collection been at the lobby at RSU that anybody
Speaker 5: at any time can drop off supplies there as well.
Speaker 2: You'd be surprised how many learners know what that's like
Speaker 2: and they say, hey, look I got an.
Speaker 1: Extra give that exactly and it works out really well.
Speaker 6: And the Brewing Wrestling team helped us move supplies from
Speaker 6: our storage at r Sue to Saint Luke's, which was
Speaker 6: a tremendous help because they can lift. In fact, sometimes
Speaker 6: I would go, are you sure you can lift that much?
Speaker 1: Watch hang on aid to watch this.
Speaker 4: Exactly, it's right.
Speaker 5: So we were there with cool water and encouragement.
Speaker 3: We had some snacks, well we didn't so much.
Speaker 6: Of a blur, and Pat usually buys snacks and things,
Speaker 6: so that that really helps. And the Lighthouse, we go
Speaker 6: out there and some of their volunteers they will come
Speaker 6: help us, and we do like to pay them because
Speaker 6: we know that they're out there trying to have a
Speaker 6: little bit of spending money or doing something, trying to
Speaker 6: better themselves. And so that has helped. And then the
Speaker 6: Women's Golf League out at Hillcrest they provided us with
Speaker 6: this is unbelievable fifty nine calculators, scientific calculators.
Speaker 5: Amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so still still aren't cheap.
Speaker 3: Now now these at least I thought.
Speaker 2: Maybe since I was in grade school when the first
Speaker 2: came out in like fourth or fifth grade, that maybe
Speaker 2: the price would come down.
Speaker 6: Well, these aren't the graphing calculators, but they are scientific
Speaker 6: and they're you know, up to twenty dollars each and
Speaker 6: so it was just a tremendous help.
Speaker 1: Wow. Now let's get into how folks can help. First
Speaker 1: of all, we need volunteers.
Speaker 5: We need volunteers, and those volunteers, as we said, because
Speaker 5: we do purchase supplies all year, we have an inventory
Speaker 5: storage is that RSU are the RSU building on the
Speaker 5: second floor, and they can contact us at packthe Backpacks
Speaker 5: dot org if anybody's interested in helping, because we always
Speaker 5: have prob that need to be inventory, products that need
Speaker 5: to be stored, those kinds of things that we do
Speaker 5: all year in preparation of the next year, spent weekend
Speaker 5: and so yeah, they can volunteer that way as well.
Speaker 6: We were so fortunate with our volunteers this year. We
Speaker 6: had so many people that came Thursday night, Friday morning,
Speaker 6: Friday afternoon, Saturday morning that we finished early each time.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 6: They were fantastic. We could not do it without these
Speaker 6: people in the community.
Speaker 1: Did you see a lot of new faces this time around?
Speaker 4: We actually did.
Speaker 5: Saw a number and we have the opportunity we used
Speaker 5: sign up genius and say for this block of time,
Speaker 5: we may need forty people, yes, and we'd get sixty
Speaker 5: because maybe maybe forty would sign up but another twenty
Speaker 5: would just come and volunteer.
Speaker 1: What happened. You gave them a nice compliment, you said,
Speaker 1: sign up genius.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1: Next thing you people showed up.
Speaker 6: And you know, it's interesting is so many parents are
Speaker 6: getting their children to be volunteers at an early age,
Speaker 6: and the children really seem to enjoy it. And it's
Speaker 6: fantastic to see those kids out there working and finding
Speaker 6: out what it is like to be a part of
Speaker 6: a community.
Speaker 2: You know, when you give a youngster a meaningful task,
Speaker 2: absolutely it means the world to them because they get
Speaker 2: that real good sense of internal pride.
Speaker 1: It's not like beat your chest pride.
Speaker 3: It's like, wow, I did that exactly, that's exactly right.
Speaker 1: Accomplishment.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, man, this is great and this helps the
Speaker 2: kids that are in need all throughout Washington County. Yes,
Speaker 2: so all the Washington County public schools are can fuddel into.
Speaker 3: This, that's true.
Speaker 6: Yes, And we are having a fundraiser coming up. We
Speaker 6: were going to have it on a Saturday, but that
Speaker 6: interfered with the big event with Big Brothers and Big Sisters,
Speaker 6: so we changed the date to October twenty fifth, and
Speaker 6: it will be Bingo night at Saint Luke's Nice.
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, what's the cost to get into the game?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: It used to be ten dollars and I think we'd
Speaker 6: probably keep it the same. I think some places charge
Speaker 6: ten dollars in advance, twelve dollars.
Speaker 3: At the door. So we're we're in discussion on that.
Speaker 2: Should we have folks to check out your Facebook page
Speaker 2: for prepdates on that?
Speaker 3: Definitely, definitely do that, but sooner than that.
Speaker 5: We have a fundraiser restaurant fundraiser Mazios on the seventeenth
Speaker 5: Sunday afternoon from four to eight and all you have
Speaker 5: to do is go and eat pizza, Grab everybody off
Speaker 5: the street and take a load with you. Just be
Speaker 5: sure to tell them that you are eating on behalf
Speaker 5: of pack the backpacks.
Speaker 1: Can they credit you?
Speaker 5: We get a percentage of the sales for the day. Yes, nice, Yes, wonderful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's great. Anything that we can do to earn
Speaker 3: some money help, right.
Speaker 1: Large pizza solid our.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 5: Yes, As Simmy said, we have a number of smaller fundraisers.
Speaker 5: Because we're not a United Way agency, we don't have
Speaker 5: corporate funding for what we do. We depend upon these
Speaker 5: types of breakfast pancake breakfast at the Masonic Lodge or
Speaker 5: the Knights of Columbus at Saint John's. They are very
Speaker 5: very supportive of what we do and are always looking
Speaker 5: for a slot to slaught us in to say, hey,
Speaker 5: we would you like to come and serve?
Speaker 1: And I know those nights they're always looking for to cook.
Speaker 4: They are and they're good and they're good.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: We always like to mention that all of us are volunteers.
Speaker 6: We have no paid employees and so no administrative cost,
Speaker 6: no administrative costs. The only thing we have to pay
Speaker 6: us rent and that that we have to have a
Speaker 6: place to put the supplies or I don't know what
Speaker 6: we would do.
Speaker 1: So that is your overhead, just the rent that's overheaded. Yes, wow,
Speaker 1: this is wonderful. And how do people get a.
Speaker 2: Hold of you in order to try to fill in
Speaker 2: these slots for volunteers and other ways to help maybe.
Speaker 1: Even be a shot.
Speaker 4: Well at packd Backpacks dot org and.
Speaker 5: They can contact us from our Facebook page.
Speaker 6: And I think the Facebook page is Washington County School
Speaker 6: Supply Drive.
Speaker 5: It is, but there is on that page the website. Yes,
Speaker 5: the website is Washington County School supply drive.
Speaker 1: All right, well you just take it into Google's we'll
Speaker 1: find it.
Speaker 6: Oh and if they go on Facebook and look it up,
Speaker 6: they will find it.
Speaker 2: Well, this is great, this is good news. I want
Speaker 2: you to first of all, get some rests.
Speaker 6: We were just saying, this is early for I told Pat,
Speaker 6: I said, I cannot believe I am not a morning person.
Speaker 6: I don't usually make any type of plans before nine
Speaker 6: o'clock since I retired. And I said, I cannot believe
Speaker 6: you talked me into coming here at eight fifteen in
Speaker 6: the morning.
Speaker 4: To but for pack the backpacks. We'll make the effort.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go for a climber.
Speaker 2: My goodness, say this is great. Well, good luck to
Speaker 2: you and folks. Remember what's the special night from Osio's again.
Speaker 4: On the seventeenth Sunday afternoon after.
Speaker 1: Four to eight, and then the Bingo.
Speaker 4: Night is October twenty fifth.
Speaker 1: October twenty fifth.
Speaker 5: Saint Luke's Cindy was saying that that's going to be
Speaker 5: at St.
Speaker 4: Lukes.
Speaker 5: One of the other things I really would like to
Speaker 5: give special kudos to Saint Lukes. They let us virtually
Speaker 5: take over their church. While this is going.
Speaker 3: On a week in. Yes, we are so appreciative of
Speaker 3: Saint Rights.
Speaker 4: We've been doing it with them for over twenty years.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, Oh they're fantastic. We could not do this
Speaker 3: without saying Luke's Wow.
Speaker 1: What a great partnership.
Speaker 3: So father Nick, thank you.
Speaker 4: There you go and he packed backpacks.
Speaker 1: What he did, he did well, he pa.
Speaker 2: He had a little fun too, he did. Thank you
Speaker 2: for being with us today, and folks, thank you for
Speaker 2: watching and listening right here on K one, the one
Speaker 2: you trust.
Speaker 1: I never