Bloomington, Indiana Stuff-a-Bus campaign a success!
Originally posted at: https://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=93449
The Monroe County Community School Corporation, Salvation Army and other local businesses conducted their second annual Stuff-a-Bus campaign last week July 15-17.
The goal was to fill an entire MCCSC school bus with school supplies for those who need it most.
Last year, the campaign took in roughly 200 items donated by the local community dropping off school supplies at various locations throughout Bloomington.
“It wasn’t enough to stuff a bus, buses are pretty large, but each year we set that goal and we hope to get closer and closer to it,” said Beverly Smith, MCCSC Director of School and Community Services.
This year the Stuff-a-Bus campaign took in roughly 350 items, an increase of 150 from last year’s campaign.
“One significant number is the 32 backpacks we received this year,” Smith said. “These will make a huge difference for a lot of children.”
This year the Stuff-a-Bus campaign parked its bus in front of three different locations around Bloomington: Texas Roadhouse, College Mall and Whitehall Plaza.
“Our collection feeds into a great community collection,” Smith said. “We partner with other agencies to collect for a big community effort.”
The community effort Smith described is the Salvation Army’s Back to School Program Aug. 1 at Sherwood Oak Church, 2700 E. Rogers Road.
The Back to School Program is a nationwide effort that partners with churches and non-profit organizations with area school corporations.
This program gives quality, new school-related items to children (K-12) and their families in an effort to start the school year off with access to much-needed
school supplies.
“They can come out with new backpacks, school supplies, all the little items that make a child feel successful and ready for that first day of school,” Smith said.She asks everyone to think about their first days of school and what they wanted most to start the year off right.
“Every child wants that feeling of success and every child wants those materials and we’re happy to be a part of an effort that provides that,” Smith said.
Smith mentioned the community effort that it takes to make campaigns like this successful.
In the process she thanked Sears for donating school supplies and backpacks as well as Applebee’s and McDonald’s for providing free food to those who donated. Finally, she thanked the Salvation Army.
“The Salvation Army has championed this cause with us for the past two years and we just look forward to partnering with them in the future and seeing this thing grow,” Smith said.
For more information please contact Beverly Smith at the MCCSC website at www.mccsc.net.
Visit the Salvation Army Indiana website at: https://salvationarmyindiana.org/