Every year during back to school season, many families are put under the pressure of having to purchase new supplies for their children’s school year. For some, this is an exciting time, but for others it creates a difficult scenario that makes paying other bills much harder or even impossible. In order to help support these students and families, the Ross Medical Education Center campus in Midland, Michigan hosted a back to school supply drive.
It all started when Joanna S., a student in the Midland Medical Assistant program, decided to take it upon herself to organize the campus-wide school supply drive. With Joanna’s leadership and the quick and enthusiastic help from the rest of the campus, it was decided that the collected supplies would be donated to the annual Stuff the Bus event sponsored by local businesses. This was the third annual local Stuff the Bus event.
During the drive, the campus worked together to collect collect backpacks, school supplies, and nonperishable food items for early childhood programs throughout Midland County. Between community donations and those from the Ross Midland campus, approximately 1,300 items were collected for this very worthwhile cause. Donated items included 135 backpacks, 20 lunchboxes, more than 600 notebooks and folders, and hundreds of other school supplies such as markers, crayons, colored pencils, and rulers. These donations helped to support 30 classrooms in 10 different locations. Each of the 10 locations also was the recipient of a $25 Meijer gift card as well.
All of the donated nonperishable food items were then taken to the Longview Early Childhood Center food pantry for distribution to Midland County families. The event was organized to benefit the Midland County Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), as well as the Head Start and Early Childhood Special Education programs offered by the Midland County Educational Service Agency in collaboration with many early childhood partners.