Butler YMCA gives away free school supplies to start year
For the students of Butler County, another school year has gotten underway this week. For the parents of Butler County, this means yet another year of having to shop for school supplies to send their young ones back to school fully prepared.
For the fourth year in a row, the Butler YMCA offered its Back-to-School Backpack and School Supply Giveaway on Thursday, Aug. 22 — a perfect alternative for parents such as Delaney Gaiser, who are trying to save every dollar they can from having to buy school supplies at the store.
“We just heard that there were school supplies and backpacks being given away, and we could definitely use that right now,” Gaiser said. “With the economy, financially … life’s hard right now.”
She was far from alone. By the time the event opened at 2 p.m., the line of families waiting to pick up their backpacks and school supplies was stretching outside the front entrance of the YMCA building. This year, the YMCA was prepared with enough backpacks — 165 in total.
“They come from donations from community members,” said YMCA membership director Heidi Nicholls-Bowser. “About 65 (backpacks) this year came from our partnership with Union Home Mortgage in Seven Fields.”
The children were allowed to choose their own backpack, and the choices included a wide range of favorites such as Fortnite. Children could also pick up a free bag of school supplies, from a cache of 150 bags donated by Benko Orthodontics.
Of course, no backpack is really complete without a book to put in it. For the first time at these events, the YMCA also let families take home a free book this year, thanks to a generous donation from the First English Lutheran Church and the Butler Area Public Library.
“The Butler Library held a school supply/backpack giveaway, and First English Lutheran Church was involved in making sure kids had books, and they had some leftover from that event,” Nicholls-Bowser said. “The person from First English Lutheran Church asked if we wanted the remainder of the books to pass out to the kids.”
