The end of summer is here. It's back to school.
It's the time of year when parents go school clothes shopping, invest in that new pair of Nike's and pick up school schedules and teacher assignments.
A fresh, new beginning.
For some parents, the start of school may not carry with it an air of excitement because providing for their child(ren) may carry with it an overwhelming feeling of financial burden. It may be depressing. Going shopping is expensive.
Enter, Community Church of Keystone Heights.
Twelve years ago, Community Church decided not to offer the traditional church vacation Bible school during the summer. It decided, under retired pastor Rob Morford, to instead, put the money it would have spent on vacation Bible school (which, in their estimation, had a limited community outreach) toward a back-to-school event to help local students prepare for the new school year. The church decided to help parents help their children feel greater excitement and build confidence for the learning experience by helping parents take care of the physical needs, and boy, have those initial efforts evolved over the years.
Organizers Jenn Cumbus, Barbara Sullivan and Karen Powell (and their cast of over a hundred people) have fine tuned a well-oiled machine. Every subtle nuance and detail has been taken into account for each shoppers' best shopping experience. This year, the event made reservations for 294 students of which 261 of them kept their appointments.
Powell said they collected approximately $7,000 for which to buy shoes ($5,000), socks and underwear ($4,000). Donations were made by Clay Electric ($3,000), Rotary Club of Keystone Heights ($800) and Keystone United Methodist Church (Will update as soon as I have that number). Cumbus said this a true community event by the nature of the donations made. They applied for Clay Electric's "Round Up" grant which puts utility dollars back into the community. "If you paid your electric bill, you contributed," said Cumbus, "you were part of it."
She said a week after last year's event, planning and the collecting of gently-used clothing began for this past Tuesday (Aug. 1). Along with new shoes, socks and underwear, students selected five sets of clothing. The multi-purpose room is clearly organized by size and gender making logistics pretty easy. Cumbus said the church added dressing rooms inside two side classrooms for ultimate privacy.
For families with young babies, there was a daycare so moms, dads and guardians could help their older children shop. The Book Bus, an outreach program targeting low income neighborhoods, gave away books to each child. Each one of the 146 families served, received a package consisting of laundry detergent, shampoo, body wash and deodorant.
After shopping, students had the option of making a stop at the beauty and barber shops for back-to-school haircuts.
When I say it's a fine-tuned, well-oiled and nuanced machine, I mean, down to the shopping bag selection: Buckle, Pac-Sun and American Eagle - students picked a shopping bag from the mall store of their choosing - just like everyone else.
For more information, contact Community Church at 352.473.4183.