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A local church is the setting for Saturday’s We Care Fair, a back-to-school festival with free school supplies and plenty of things to do.
Backpacks filled with school supplies will be available for 600 students in Newton County and Goodman schools distributed at Abundant Life Assembly of God. There will be an outdoor campsite set up with a hot-dog roast, a petting zoo, pony rides and an inflatable bounce castle and house. They will distribute new and lightly used coats and jeans and 300 pairs of new shoes from pre-school sizes to men’s size 10. There will be drawings for Wal-Mart gift cards and both a boy’s and girl’s pair of Nike Shox. Five stylists will give free haircuts and a pottery-throwing demonstration.
Mascots from Smokey the Bear to Clifford the Big Red Dog will be available to greet children and a clown will make and give away balloon animals.
Dental, vision and hearing screening stations will be set up. Lifeline Screening will be taking appointments for low-cost care for the uninsured. They will complete the screenings Sept. 3 at the church.
Each pack will be have a spiral notebook, glue stick, tissues, crayons, bottle of glue, scissors, ink pens, pocket folders and a school box to store everything.
Organizer Brenda Johnson started in November working to bring together the many different organizations that will form the fair.
“We’re kind of just doing a generic bag of supplies and some of them may not need every single thing that’s in the bag,” Johnson said.
They have some packets made up for older children and an assortment of clothing sizes.
“We don’t have just little sizes — we have adult sizes that would fit high school kids,” she said. “They’re nice coats and jeans, they’re not something somebody wouldn’t want to wear.”
Economic Security pre-registered 250 for the event.
Even if they don’t want school supplies or clothes, people are welcome to come, Johnson said. Registration will begin at the front door facing Hwy. 71.
“There will be a big sign saying ‘start here’ and they can register there and then we will have people to direct them to different areas to whatever they’re interested in,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of volunteers helping.”
The school supplies are stacked to the ceilings at the church. They will start assembling the packets on Thursday.
A local church is the setting for Saturday’s We Care Fair, a back-to-school festival with free school supplies and plenty of things to do.
Backpacks filled with school supplies will be available for 600 students in Newton County and Goodman schools distributed at Abundant Life Assembly of God. There will be an outdoor campsite set up with a hot-dog roast, a petting zoo, pony rides and an inflatable bounce castle and house. They will distribute new and lightly used coats and jeans and 300 pairs of new shoes from pre-school sizes to men’s size 10. There will be drawings for Wal-Mart gift cards and both a boy’s and girl’s pair of Nike Shox. Five stylists will give free haircuts and a pottery-throwing demonstration.
Mascots from Smokey the Bear to Clifford the Big Red Dog will be available to greet children and a clown will make and give away balloon animals.
Dental, vision and hearing screening stations will be set up. Lifeline Screening will be taking appointments for low-cost care for the uninsured. They will complete the screenings Sept. 3 at the church.
Each pack will be have a spiral notebook, glue stick, tissues, crayons, bottle of glue, scissors, ink pens, pocket folders and a school box to store everything.
Organizer Brenda Johnson started in November working to bring together the many different organizations that will form the fair.
“We’re kind of just doing a generic bag of supplies and some of them may not need every single thing that’s in the bag,” Johnson said.
They have some packets made up for older children and an assortment of clothing sizes.
“We don’t have just little sizes — we have adult sizes that would fit high school kids,” she said. “They’re nice coats and jeans, they’re not something somebody wouldn’t want to wear.”
Economic Security pre-registered 250 for the event.
Even if they don’t want school supplies or clothes, people are welcome to come, Johnson said. Registration will begin at the front door facing Hwy. 71.
“There will be a big sign saying ‘start here’ and they can register there and then we will have people to direct them to different areas to whatever they’re interested in,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of volunteers helping.”
The school supplies are stacked to the ceilings at the church. They will start assembling the packets on Thursday.
“We’ll always take donations, as we keep getting things in we can give things out,” she said. “If we get more monetary donations, we will just buy more school supplies and have more school supplies available.”
Johnson said this event will bring a more local focus to the church’s mission efforts by helping others at home, but it’s not about the volunteers.
“We’re able to offer so much more when we have the whole community working together,” Johnson said.
There should be supplies available throughout the day and if supplies run out, Johnson said to be patient. Unclaimed packets from those who pre-registered will be given out during the last hour of the event.
“We’re going to try to make this a yearly event and just build on it each year,” Johnson said. “The more involvement we have from the community, the more we are able to do as far what we can have available.”
The We Care Fair will be from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Abundant Life Assembly of God, 700 Spencer Drive, Neosho. For more information, please call 451-1858.
