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Annual event prelude to new school year
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| Table full: Anita Choate hands out pencil bags Saturday at the annual fair. (Thelma Grimes/photo.) |
Thelma Grimes/San Pedro Valley News-Sun
Before 9 a.m. on Saturday, hundreds had lined up to take advantage of the annual Back-To-School Fair, hosted by the Benson Youth Action Team and sponsored and supported by a number of local organizations and businesses.
In its seventh year, event coordinator Gloria Durgin estimated that about 800 kids would be able to get back-to-school supplies for free.
But students from all over Southern Arizona didn't just get supplies - a clothing drive hosted by the Benson Parent Teachers Association allowed parents to pick up school clothes as well.
Besides donating a lot of the supplies, Wal-Mart also played a major role in the clothing drive, giving a lot of brand new clothes as well.
Brandy Scarola, a mother of four, said the fair is a tremendous help to her family, especially in these tough economic times.
"The school supplies are very important," she said. "With four kids and a low income, I can't get by without this help. I definitely appreciate it and am very much grateful."
Scarola said she was also impressed with one of this year's new features that will give her the information she needs in case one of her children is ever kidnapped or goes missing.
This year, the Arizona Child Identification Program set up a booth and for no cost to parents took personal information down.
Jim LeClair said the program is set up to make getting pertinent information about a child to emergency officials as fast as possible if something were to happen.
Besides photographing the child, the child's personal information was entered into a computer and the child was fingerprinted and DNA swabs taken.
LeClair said all parents were given a disk with the information on it.
"Parents can now keep that in a safe place, and if God forbid something does ever happen, they can give that to police and within an hour all that important information can be in an Amber Alert," he said.
Besides the child identification program, clothing and school supplies, several clubs, organizations and businesses also participated, donating various items like pencil bags, pens, pencils and balloons. Les Boegemann, of the Boegemann Law Firm in Benson, cooked hot dogs and handed out water with his two daughters.
Sam Foster, who was part of the Child and Family Resources Booth, said he was impressed with the Benson event, noting that it's a great community service to get that many children supplies they will need for the new school year.
While Tucson schools are already under way, the San Pedro Valley will start the 2009-10 school year next week.
So many took advantage of the free supplies that within the first hour the middle school booth had already run out of backpacks.
Gary Douglas, an event organizer, said they are going to get ahead for next year and will start asking the community to donate backpacks now. Douglas, who is the Benson Schools resource officer, said the community can donate backpacks at his office now.
Before 9 a.m. on Saturday, hundreds had lined up to take advantage of the annual Back-To-School Fair, hosted by the Benson Youth Action Team and sponsored and supported by a number of local organizations and businesses.
In its seventh year, event coordinator Gloria Durgin estimated that about 800 kids would be able to get back-to-school supplies for free.
But students from all over Southern Arizona didn't just get supplies - a clothing drive hosted by the Benson Parent Teachers Association allowed parents to pick up school clothes as well.
Besides donating a lot of the supplies, Wal-Mart also played a major role in the clothing drive, giving a lot of brand new clothes as well.
Brandy Scarola, a mother of four, said the fair is a tremendous help to her family, especially in these tough economic times.
"The school supplies are very important," she said. "With four kids and a low income, I can't get by without this help. I definitely appreciate it and am very much grateful."
Scarola said she was also impressed with one of this year's new features that will give her the information she needs in case one of her children is ever kidnapped or goes missing.
This year, the Arizona Child Identification Program set up a booth and for no cost to parents took personal information down.
Jim LeClair said the program is set up to make getting pertinent information about a child to emergency officials as fast as possible if something were to happen.
Besides photographing the child, the child's personal information was entered into a computer and the child was fingerprinted and DNA swabs taken.
LeClair said all parents were given a disk with the information on it.
"Parents can now keep that in a safe place, and if God forbid something does ever happen, they can give that to police and within an hour all that important information can be in an Amber Alert," he said.
Besides the child identification program, clothing and school supplies, several clubs, organizations and businesses also participated, donating various items like pencil bags, pens, pencils and balloons. Les Boegemann, of the Boegemann Law Firm in Benson, cooked hot dogs and handed out water with his two daughters.
Sam Foster, who was part of the Child and Family Resources Booth, said he was impressed with the Benson event, noting that it's a great community service to get that many children supplies they will need for the new school year.
While Tucson schools are already under way, the San Pedro Valley will start the 2009-10 school year next week.
So many took advantage of the free supplies that within the first hour the middle school booth had already run out of backpacks.
Gary Douglas, an event organizer, said they are going to get ahead for next year and will start asking the community to donate backpacks now. Douglas, who is the Benson Schools resource officer, said the community can donate backpacks at his office now.
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