Speaker 1: Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1: It is time now for our community connection right here
Speaker 1: on K one, the one you trust. And today we're
Speaker 1: doing things a little bit differently as far as our
Speaker 1: webcam is concerned, because well we've had a little malfunction,
Speaker 1: so I'm doing this with a little handheld. So if
Speaker 1: you're watching this on Facebook Live, hey, great. First of all,
Speaker 1: I introduce yourself, young lady.
Speaker 2: I am Debbie Laroche. I am the President of the
Speaker 2: Washington County School Supply Drive.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness sake.
Speaker 4: Hi am Shelley Davidson.
Speaker 5: I'm the Secretary of Washington County School Supply Drive or
Speaker 5: Pack the buttpacks.
Speaker 3: This is a year round thing, isn't it. Oh yes,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, you just finished and now you're starting up again.
Speaker 2: Correct. We have to start accumulating the immediate supplies. The
Speaker 2: volumes are so great that there is no way we
Speaker 2: could wait until like next June to start buying things,
Speaker 2: and so we are actively out there scrounging looking for
Speaker 2: bargains of things that have been marked down on clearance
Speaker 2: and are just waiting for us to snatch them up.
Speaker 3: Well, how's it going so far?
Speaker 4: It's going great.
Speaker 5: We've been finding some backpacks for three to four dollars
Speaker 5: and we ended up doing about twenty five twenty sorry
Speaker 5: two and fifty nine backpacks last year, which is about
Speaker 5: thirty percent of the kids in Washington County.
Speaker 3: So and that number never really goes down to no.
Speaker 4: No, it usually only goes up.
Speaker 5: So we're definitely busy getting supplies raised and finding finding deals.
Speaker 3: Now you've got a fundraiser coming up, and it looks
Speaker 3: like it could be some fun and I like putting
Speaker 3: fun and fundraising. Yes.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we are going to participate in Celebrate Giving on
Speaker 2: November the fourteenth at the Community Center and we will
Speaker 2: be there with a lot of other organizations and we
Speaker 2: are going to be stuffing the bus for next year.
Speaker 3: Stuffing the bus. What kind of bus? Were we having?
Speaker 3: A school bus? Yes?
Speaker 4: Yes, well it will be a cardboard but.
Speaker 5: Exactly, and we'll be stuffing it with pens, pencils, highlighters,
Speaker 5: black or dry erase markers. There will be a list
Speaker 5: on our Facebook page and we'll have posters up around town.
Speaker 5: But we're going to try to stuff the bus and
Speaker 5: work on getting those supplies.
Speaker 3: Rais well, this is great, and of course with the
Speaker 3: event that's going on that always draws a big crowd
Speaker 3: anyway down there at the center, and it's going to
Speaker 3: be great to see this in action, and I would
Speaker 3: like to see everybody participate to the best of their ability.
Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely my goodness sake.
Speaker 3: So that is putting the fun in it, isn't it.
Speaker 5: Yes, And just to remind everyone, it's free to go
Speaker 5: in or celebrate giving, so you don't have to actually
Speaker 5: bring money, but we will be able to take card
Speaker 5: donations and cash donations.
Speaker 4: This is our first time trying card donations.
Speaker 3: At the event. Well, there you go. You know, a
Speaker 3: lot of folks carry that plastick around. Now when you
Speaker 3: do this, you kind of need a little help. But
Speaker 3: you've had volunteers for a good long time, but you
Speaker 3: could probably use a few new faces.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes we could. We had a wonderful turnout this
Speaker 2: year of volunteers. Sometimes up to one hundred, one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty five people came to help us on our
Speaker 2: biggest event. But even now, we have all of these
Speaker 2: products that are coming into our storage facility and they
Speaker 2: have to be unboxed, counted, and put in regular boxes
Speaker 2: so that we know exactly what we have in our inventory.
Speaker 3: So how do we how do we sign up to volunteer?
Speaker 2: Well, we can do it through our website and the
Speaker 2: Facebook page. If someone wants to volunteer with us, there
Speaker 2: are comment places that they can just say, hey, we
Speaker 2: don't have set schedules at this time, but we will
Speaker 2: be doing it sometimes during the day, during the week,
Speaker 2: and sometimes in the evening or on a Saturday morning
Speaker 2: or something like that.
Speaker 3: Oh very good. Now I saw something on the cheat sheet.
Speaker 3: It's a school supply of the month. What is that?
Speaker 5: So we have started partnering with the churches in the area.
Speaker 5: We have four churches right now that are helping us
Speaker 5: do kind of like a school supply drive. We have
Speaker 5: First Presbyterian Disciples, Christian Church, Friday Night Church, and Saint
Speaker 5: Luke's Episcopal Church that are helping us raise school supplies.
Speaker 5: This month, we are collecting pencils and so we're doing
Speaker 5: small packs of pencils which are like eight to twelve
Speaker 5: pencils in a box, or large packs of pencils which
Speaker 5: are like twenty to twenty four pencils in a box.
Speaker 5: And that really helps us because we get a lot
Speaker 5: of those that are needed for when we pack the backpacks.
Speaker 3: Of course, the battle cry.
Speaker 4: Is get to let out, Yes, and they can. They
Speaker 4: can also.
Speaker 5: Donate at RSU where ours where ours storage facility is.
Speaker 5: We do have a blue bin in their lobby that
Speaker 5: you can also drop off supplies at.
Speaker 3: So right downtown huh, Yes, centrally located. Yes and uh.
Speaker 3: And once again, this big event that we're having is
Speaker 3: coming up, would celebrate Giving. That is on November fourteenth.
Speaker 3: We're just a skirt, just a scant month.
Speaker 2: Away, right, a month away. It's on a Thursday night,
Speaker 2: uh huh, which is different this year. It has been
Speaker 2: close to Giving Tuesday, but they wanted to try to
Speaker 2: separate that. And that is sponsored by the Kawanas Club
Speaker 2: and so they are have as last count I heard
Speaker 2: forty eight different organizations will be there to talk about
Speaker 2: their mission and you get some support and maybe win
Speaker 2: some prizes.
Speaker 3: Well, this is going to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: And you know, we were blessed with such a community
Speaker 3: or volunteerism is you really don't have to push too hard.
Speaker 3: Folks just kind of step up and pitch in. But
Speaker 3: it's nice to be recognized, isn't it. Oh? Yes, Yes,
Speaker 3: And then folks who might not know your story. This
Speaker 3: is the opportunity to get the story told.
Speaker 2: That's right. I go into stores all the time, and
Speaker 2: especially if I start filling my cart with something, you know,
Speaker 2: the same thing forty or fifty, they'll go, well, what
Speaker 2: are you going to do with all of those things?
Speaker 2: And I tell them our story and they don't a
Speaker 2: lot of them do not know that that we exist.
Speaker 2: Even right here in town boy, you.
Speaker 3: Know, someone's already thinking, maybe you're going to be breaking
Speaker 3: bad with crayon.
Speaker 2: Well, I usually amassed if I'm a teacher, Yes, that's
Speaker 2: the first question.
Speaker 3: Yes, I imagine so, because unfortunately our teachers have to
Speaker 3: kind of break into their own wallets and take care
Speaker 3: of things they do.
Speaker 2: They do with things that they need that just don't
Speaker 2: come in. They they feel that everybody should have that supply,
Speaker 2: and so they supplement it out of their own pocket
Speaker 2: in many cases.
Speaker 3: And when the kids get the backpacks, yes, that's got
Speaker 3: to just feel your art.
Speaker 5: It's the best part because you get to see their
Speaker 5: faces just light up, seeing what their backpack is going
Speaker 5: to look like for that year, and seeing all the supplies.
Speaker 4: That they're going to get to use.
Speaker 5: That's one of the reasons why we do what we
Speaker 5: do is so that the kids can have their backpacks
Speaker 5: and be ready to go, ready to start the school
Speaker 5: year fully, able to participate in class. And it also
Speaker 5: helps the teachers so they don't fill that burden to
Speaker 5: take the funds out of their pockets.
Speaker 4: To supply the supplies, you know, with the kids.
Speaker 3: And I remember this very very well as a child.
Speaker 3: Not everybody went to school equipped the same way, yes,
Speaker 3: and they didn't have things like pack the backpacks in
Speaker 3: every community. Yes, So you know, this way everybody gets
Speaker 3: pretty much an even start.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 5: And we actually have had where we'll have someone through
Speaker 5: and then their kids will come through as well.
Speaker 4: And we have a lot of our people.
Speaker 5: That got help from us when they were kids come
Speaker 5: back and volunteer with us. So it's been it's great
Speaker 5: seeing like the generational help that we were able to
Speaker 5: help give people a leg up to you know, actually
Speaker 5: be able to be involved in class and potentially help
Speaker 5: the rest of their family when they get older.
Speaker 3: That's a lesson that never gets old, is learning how
Speaker 3: to help.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: And you know you've got a great organization here where
Speaker 3: can folks find out more about you?
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Shelley.
Speaker 5: There we go www dot pacth Backpacks dot org, or
Speaker 5: you can check our Facebook page which is at Washington
Speaker 5: County School Supply Drive.
Speaker 4: I know we're known as.
Speaker 5: Pack the Backpacks, but that's our official name, so if
Speaker 5: you look for that on Facebook, we do keep that
Speaker 5: pretty updated on what we're doing.
Speaker 4: And when we need help.
Speaker 3: All right, on November fourteenth, remember get down to the center,
Speaker 3: look for the school bus and let's stuff it with
Speaker 3: packed backpack ladies. I want to thank you both for
Speaker 3: being here with us today.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen. You have been watching and listening to
Speaker 3: our community connection on K one, the one you trust.
Speaker 3: Tien Howell