Waynesburg Elementary students receive school supplies
WAYNESBURG- Waynesburg Central Elementary School was recently selected through an initiative of the humanitarian organization World Vision to receive backpacks loaded with school supplies for 150 students.
“I feel it was a wonderful surprise for our students and parents. In these tough economic times, where schools are being asked to do more with less and parents are encouraged to contribute school supplies, it can become exhausting,” said Waynesburg Central Elementary Principal Scott Headlee. “This was very helpful and will be appreciated by all.”
Over the summer, World Vision teamed with Consol Energy and the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation with the goal of supplying 1,500 backpacks to schools in the city of Pittsburgh, Greene County, Washington County and other outlying counties.
As part of World Vision’s SchoolTools program, volunteers from the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation, the Penguins front office and Consol Energy recently spent an afternoon filling the backpacks with school supplies at the World Vision Global Distribution Center in Sewickley.
The volunteers packed the new backpacks with pencils, erasers, pens, notebooks, folders, pencils, glue, crayons, markers, rulers and more. Each backpack was zipped up with a unique note of encouragement inside.
“That part has been amazing,” said Jim Fischerkeller, World Vision’s director of corporate relations. “Nothing gets the response that the backpacks do, because the kids want to be excited for school. They don’t want it to be a chore. They want to have the things that they need to be able to keep up with the other kids, be excited, follow the teacher’s instructions and have everything in hand that they need.”
Fischerkeller said SchoolsTools was created to fill a gap.
“Every year, teachers send home lists of products they need or supplies the kids need to provide and many families just don’t have the money or funds to do that,” he said.
Parents have enough to worry about with transportation for their children, school clothes, paying for school lunches and many other school-related expenses. School supplies are often placed at the bottom of the list, Fischerkeller said.
“About a year ago, we got involved with World Vision,” said Dave Soltesz, president of the Penguins Foundation. “Their mission fits what the foundation is about. It deals with kids; it deals with kids internationally, helping kids with water, clothes, food and all those basic things. We felt that it was a very, very appropriate fit for the foundation.”
World Vision said there is a movement across the country among companies, churches, schools, and groups of all kinds to host SchoolTools events to provide basic school supplies for children that need them.
Assembling SchoolTools backpacks is a hands-on opportunity to help school children with this basic need. The cost of each backpack is a tax-deductible donation of $22. This price includes shipping, handling, and distribution costs. Groups have the option of donating SchoolTools backpacks to a school in need in its community, or World Vision can arrange to pick them up and distribute them to at risk children in the United States.
“The Pens Foundation is doing really great things with World Vision. When we got here today, they showed us a video and talked about how much teachers pay out of pocket for students,” said Andi Perelman, Penguins media coordinator while she packed one of the backpacks. “It’s such a high cost and there are so many people out there who don’t have the opportunity to buy things like this. I’m just happy to help and pack these backpacks and give them to local students.”
For information about how your group or organization can contribute to the SchoolTools program, visit kits.worldvision.org.