BEND, OR -- With less than a month before kids head back to school, more than a dozen school supply drives are collecting items for families in need across Deschutes County. Most benefit the Family Access Network in Bend-La Pine, Redmond and Sisters School districts.
Nancy Childers with FAN says for the past several years, they’ve provided supplies to more than 3,150 students each year. "Nearly half of that is distributed in September of each year. So, right now, the phones are ringing here in the FAN Foundation office with parents asking when they can get school supplies for their kids. A lot of students and families count on us to get those supplies at the beginning of each school year."
Childers says they need everything from paper to scissors to dry erase markers. "It’s a basic list, but especially the backpacks for high school students. A lot of people donate backpacks, and the cute little ones are always fun. But, it’s the high schoolers who need the big sturdy backpacks, so we always ask to focus on that for that age group."
And, she tells KBND, those donations make a big difference for families. "I was just talking to a mom on the phone this morning, who has 6 kids in the BLP school district. For her, every year it’s a major thing because she doesn’t want her kids to feel embarrassed that they don’t have what they need. So, knowing that they can go to their FAN advocate’s office and just pick out exactly what they need and have the supplies that everybody else does, so they just feel like a normal kid going back to school."
Donations can be made at a number of locations across the region, including any Mid Oregon Credit Union branch.
