Bloomington-Normal Students Ready for School Thanks to Annual Supply Giveaway

 

Reposted from The Pantagraph

By Drew Zimmerman; Photos by Clay Jackson

BLOOMINGTON — Kathy Grismore was first in a line of dozens of parents parked outside State Farm’s Corporate South offices Tuesday morning waiting to receive school supplies at the Back 2 School Alliance’s annual giveaway.

Grismore and her family had to arrive an hour early to be in front of a line of cars that circled the facility’s north parking deck and stretched back to the intersection of Loop and Ireland Grove.

But Grismore said that for a family like hers, with seven children in Bloomington District 87, it is essential to have community events like this.

“It’s very critical because when you have more than three kids, it gets costly,” Grismore said.

Jan Meadows, chairwoman of the Back 2 School Alliance, said backpack and school supply distributions have been going on for the last 26 years and began with 50 backpacks that were given to District 87 families.

Since then, McLean County Unit 5 got involved and the event grew so large that it had to be held at Grossinger Motors Arena prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. State Farm has hosted the giveaway at Corporate South for the last three years.

Eligible families must complete the registration process for their school and have updated health records for their children before the supply giveaway.

“The first year was very trial and error, and we’ve gotten a lot of things smoothed but there’s still a problem with so many people in a small space,” Meadows said. “But it’s moving pretty quickly.”

This year, the alliance collected and packed around 4,000 backpacks full of school supplies. Meadows anticipated distributing them to 1,500 families and around 3,000 students.

This requires the assistance of around 350 volunteers over the eight-hour event, she added.

Scott Vogel, principal of Glenn Elementary School, said he has been volunteering or the event for 11 years, and while families receive school supplies for their children, they also get information on a number of local resources.

“Parents just want to try to keep themselves informed so that they can help best support their children,” Vogel said.

Michelle Goluba-Melrose, a fourth grade bilingual teacher at Cedar Ridge Elementary, said she has been packing backpacks, which typically is a months-long process, for 11 years and has been handing them out for three.

“It’s nice because I get to see a lot of my students come through here,” Goluba-Melrose said.

Her daughter, Normal West High School senior Josie Melrose, also has volunteered since she was 7. She said it is especially rewarding to see her mother’s students, some of whom have come from Cuba or Ecuador, get the supplies they need to succeed.

Any backpacks that are left over will go to public schools for any kids who may still need them.

Meadows said the whole process restarts the day after the giveaway with the collection of donated school supplies.

“It takes us a whole year to get this all together,” Meadows said.

Illinois Prairie Community Foundation serves as fiscal sponsor for the Back 2 School Alliance. If you would like to support the fund’s mission, please donate online.