With school starting soon, the United Way will hold its annual “Stuff the Bus” events to collect school supplies for children in need throughout the region.
School buses will be parked outside Walmarts Friday, Aug. 3, and Saturday, Aug. 4, at the following locations: Alma, Booneville, Fort Smith, Greenwood, Ozark, Paris, Sallisaw and Van Buren.
Volunteers will collect items at Franklin County locations from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, and in Crawford, Logan and Sebastian county locations from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Supplies needed include pens, pencils, paper, crayons, scissors, glue, notebooks, backpacks, kindergarten mats and many more items.
Last year, more than 38,000 packages of new school supplies were collected through the weekend drive. The donated items were distributed to 24 school districts and partner agencies.
Dee Long with the United Way said, “We’ve heard back from school administrators and teachers, and they’ve told us how much the school supply drive helps their schools. It helps those students in need, and it also helps the teachers. Many teachers buy supplies out of their own pocket, so this helps them greatly.”
For more information, in Franklin County contact Laura Rudolph at (479) 508-3315 or lrudolph@atu.edu; in Crawford, Logan and Sebastian counties contact Long or Mitzy Little at (479) 782-1311 or delightlong@mynewroads.com or mitzylittle@mynewroads.com.
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