The Backpack Program was successful this year amid many school opening uncertainties. With the assistance of Bonnie Churcher's advice and Carissa Ellinger as Co-Chair, we were able to supply  Holland Patent, General William Floyd, and Remsen  Elementary schools with at least 5 - 6 backpacks filled with school supplies for grades K - 6.

      Also with generous donations from The Stittville United Methodist Church, and many community members, the Holland Patent and Remsen Jr.and Sr High Schools were given school supplies.

     Thank you all that were able to donate,sort, and/or deliver the school supplies for this year's backpack program. Next year we hope will be Covid -19 free and we will be able to enlist the help of others that would like to volunteer with us!

    

Starting the School Year Right

Foothills Rural Community Ministry will be collecting school supplies for students in the Holland Patent Central and Remsen School Districts, whose families are facing difficult financial circumstances.  

Some of the requested items are:

      •  Pencils-#2

•  Pens-black or blue ink

•  Erasers-pink

•  Erasers-pencil cap

•  Crayons-24 crayon pack

•  Colored Pencils

•  Dry Erasable Markers--black

•  Children’s scissors, mostly small blunt, but some pointed for 5^th graders

•  Glue Sticks

•  Individual pencil sharpeners that hold shavings

•  Pencil boxes-hard cover & Zippered pouches that fit in notebooks

•  Loose-leaf 3 ring Notebooks (some call binders, but that is a confusing term) requests are for 1” green and 1” any color; 1 ½” any color, 2-2 ½” any color

•  3-ring Notebook Paper,  wide lines can be used in all schools

•  Black composition notebooks

•  5 subject spiral notebooks

•  Single subject spiral notebooks

•  2 Pocket Folders—red, yellow, blue, green, purple.  Teachers prefer plastic

•  Index dividers for 3 ring loose-leaf notebooks

•  Clip Boards (only for kindergarten)

       •  3”x 5” index cards                                                        

                                                                        

We appreciate the people of the community helping us with this project by donating needed supplies. There will be collection boxes for donated supplies at the Adirondack Bank in Holland Patent and Key Bank in Barneveld.  Area churches also helped us with this project by collecting supplies.  FRCM will distributed these supplies to the 2 Remsen Schools and the 4 Holland Patent Central Schools the week before the school year begins.

These donated items help families who are struggling financially, by allowing them to use the money they would have used to purchase school supplies to buy food and pay for other necessities.  The proper school supplies help all the students start the school year with the tools they need for learning. 

As with so many of our seasonal projects, volunteers are shopping for bargains all year long.  You can help by picking up extra items as you see them on sale in our local stores. Thank you!

                   If you have any questions about this project, or you need more information, or you have supplies that you would like to donate, please call Kathleen at 315-865-8334 or the FRCM office 315-865-5854.