Churches, businesses and families are needed to help provide school supplies for many students whose parents simply cannot afford to pay for a backpack and other school materials.
Mason-Dixon Community Services in Street will hold one of many school supply drives Aug. 25 in Harford County, said Patricia Hammond, coordinator at the organization?s Maryland chapter.
The Mason-Dixon drive used to send generic supply packages out to schools throughout the country, but this year, it is stockpiling supplies and taking orders from teachers, Hammond said.
“It?s always a great thing,” Edgewood Elementary School Principal Lisa Sundquist said. “We?re a Title I school, and so for our students it can make all the difference.”
Areas with schools most in need of donated materials include Edgewood, Aberdeen, Havre de Grace and others along the Route 40 corridor, Hammond said.
Hammond said he had a teacher tell him one time they “went out and bought a winter coat for a kid who didn?t have one so he could go out and play.”
There are five Title I schools in Harford County with a large enough percentage of students in need of free or reduced-price lunches, county schools spokesman Don Morrison said.
Donations will be accepted from 2 to 5 p.m., Aug. 25 at 708 Highland Road in Street.
FOR MORE INFO
» The Ready 2 Learn store, at 708 Highland Road, is open the last two weeks of August, the first two weeks of September and Monday mornings the rest of the school year. Harford County public school teachers can place an order by calling or faxing 410-452-0077.
