Volunteers will be stuffing bins with school supplies instead of stuffing busses full of children, for the second annual Stuff the Bus event, coordinated by United Way of Lee County.
The event, which will be held July 15, serves to ensure every child in the area starts the school year off properly.
Stuff the Bus is a program in which school supplies are collected and evenly distributed throughout public schools in Lee County, Opelika and Auburn city schools.
Volunteers will be located at the Auburn and Opelika Walmart locations from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday. If you are unable to make it out, drop-off bins will be at the locations until July 17.
The Opelika Chamber of Commerce is also housing a drop-off location through Friday. You can contact United Way if none of these locations work for you, but you would still like to donate.
Last year, United Way collected around $2,000 in school supplies and another $2,000 from the Auburn Rotary Club. The donations were used for Walmart gift cards according to Kristen Meadows, campaign manager for United Way of Lee County.
"The monetary donations are more helpful and the reason is because they can go and buy whatever the kid or student needs," said Jenifer Lovvorn, director of public relations at Auburn City Schools.
School supplies are great to have on hand, but there are times when the child may need something special that they are not able to get, Meadows said.
"In the Opelika school system, they said it was nice because a kid came to school, and they didn't have a belt and, he was never able to get one," Meadows said.
"So they were able to kind of use it for something like that as well."
School supplies like backpacks, pencils, notebooks and paper are highly encouraged as well as monetary donations. Teacher supplies, like paper towels and hand sanitizer, are also accepted.
"We're really open to be able to give more and have it be a little bit bigger this year," Meadows said.
If you'd like to be involved, United Way is looking for volunteers for the event. Volunteers are needed for the supply collection on Friday and to divide up the supplies next week.
To volunteer, contact the United Way of Lee County office by email at info@unitedwayofleecounty.com or by phone at 334-745-5540.
Once the school supplies have been collected, divided and sorted through, they are delivered to the schools that are participating in the program.
According to local school principals, the donations are greatly appreciated.
"It has been most helpful," said Janet Johnson, principal of Auburn Early Education Center. "There were many children who were provided school supplies throughout the year who wouldn't have otherwise had it not been for this program."
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