Project to collect school supplies for Valley students

PALMER — One “Day of Action” could mean hundreds of burdens lifted for families sending students back to school in the Mat-Su Valley.

During the United Way’s designated Day of Action, volunteers will gather at the old Carr’s parking lot at Pioneer Square in Palmer from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., July 31 to help fill backpacks with donated school supplies.

Supplies can be donated at Walmart until Thursday, and families are encouraged to call the Mat-Su Borough School District’s Federal Programs Department at 746-9239 to sign up to receive supplies for their children.

“This project, Stuff the Bus, is an annual outreach and collaboration of three Mat-Su School District departments: Federal Programs, Purchasing, and Transportation. In partnership with Wal-Mart, this important activity is to serve the families of the Mat-Su Valley who struggle with providing all the necessary school supplies for their children,” Families in Transition Coordinator Amy Dorsey wrote in an email.

Last year, almost 600 backpacks were given to students in need, Dorsey said.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Mat-Su Borough had a population of 95,192 in 2013, an increase of more than 9 percent since 2010. Between 2008 and 2012, 9.9 percent of the population lived below the poverty level, and an estimated 10.5 percent of people aged 16 and older were unemployed.

Helping families that are struggling financially afford school supplies is as an easy way the community can help students and their parents, Dorsey said.

Families in Transition Tutor Advisor Deb Price emphasized the fact that Stuff the Bus is not only for the homeless or people in any particular program, but for “families who fall through the cracks.”

“The thing that I absolutely love about [Stuff the Bus] is that it’s for anybody who needs it,” Price said. “There are other organizations that provide things like school supplies, but you have to qualify.”

Dorsey confirmed that all a family has to do to receive supplies through Stuff the Bus is call the school district and sign up. The Federal Programs Department will collect names until Aug. 7, the day of the giveaway.

Mat-Su Borough School District Public Information Officer Catherine Esary said that helping students get the supplies they need for school is important for student success.

“We are trying to remove the barriers of education for those children,” she said. “If kids don’t have paper and pencils, they’re not going to be effective learners.”

Not only does the project assist those lacking the funds for necessary educational tools, it gives other students and people in the community an opportunity to see where their donations are going and have a “hands-on experience” in helping out, Esary said.

Ashley Kincaid, the Marketing and Event Coordinator at United Way of Mat-Su, agreed. She said community involvement is a huge part of the event, especially as a way of showing Valley people who is in need and what is available to those people.

“We really want people to know about United Way, but we also want people to feel like they’re giving back to the community,” she said. “When we talk with people, a lot of them don’t realize how many families are in need.”

United Way of Mat-Su is newly involved in Stuff the Bus and excited to have enough volunteers to help out this year, Kincaid said. Fred Meyer, Target, Susitna Rotary, Kiwanis Club of Palmer and the Palmer Lions Club, in addition to Walmart, are all sponsoring the event in some way, whether by donating supplies, space or equipment such as tents and tables for the backpack-stuffing and loading area.

Wasilla Wal-Mart Manager Marlene Munsell said that, in addition to their annual involvement with United Way and Stuff the Bus, the store is offering 10 percent back to local teachers who spend their own money on school supplies for their classes. It’s something the store hasn’t done before. Munsell said that she has talked to teachers personally who have spent $300 to $400 on supplies for their classes in the past. Teachers can go to walmart.com and enter the code on their receipt to receive a reimbursement in the form of a gift card.

Mat-Su Borough schools open Aug. 14 for students in grades first through 12th.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266, or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.