Beckley, WV – (WWNR) – With students returning to classrooms in a couple of weeks, the need for school supplies is great. For the third year, Southern Communications teamed with local businesses to Stuff The Bus at Wal Marts in Beckley, MacArthur and Fayetteville. Shopping carts full of backpacks, notebooks and other supplies will be distributed to students in Raleigh and Fayette Counties.
“Stuff The Bus involves. . . Raleigh County Communities In Schools and teachers,” said Southern Communications General Manager Beth Reger. “We have National Honor Society kids that come out and help. And we give the kids products to help them have a successful school year.”
“The Chamber, they did a 25 hundred dollar donation, along with Wal Mart. We also donated 25 hundred dollars per county. And then the community itself is coming out and giving.”
The goal of Stuff The Bus is to ensure that students and teachers have the supplies they need to perform well in school.
“The supplies will be donated to teachers in the CIS across the county to help eliminate any barriers that a student may have that can affect their education,” said Amanda Wimbish with Raleigh County Communities In Schools.
“Getting school supplies is very important. It’s one less thing they have to worry about, a weight off their shoulders. It really helps us as we last year were able to offer free supplies at our open house and kids were prepared before they even started the school year.”
Along with Communities In Schools and the Raleigh County Chamber Of Commerce, Reger credits local businesses with helping to make Stuff The Bus a success.
“At Access Health, we are the area’s community health center,” said administrator Brittany Martin. “We have 12 school based clinics, so we’re very involved with the students, and we just saw this is a great opportunity to help give back to our patients and to our community.”
“It’s just giving back to our kids, our teachers, our community,” said Rick Lewis of Dutch Miller’s Beckley Auto Mall. “You know, sometimes it’s very hard for these teachers to get all the supplies they need and some things come out of the teachers pockets to make the classrooms bettter. And we’re here just to help do that as well.”
“Optimum is proud to once again be part of Stuff The Bus with Southern Communications and all the other great sponsors,” said Market-Business Manager Bethany Simmons. “Optimum is giving away a $1,000 Donors Choose gift card to one Raleigh County Teacher. Donors Choose is an online platform that educators can go and create projects for their classrooms. Through Optimum’s partnership with Donor’s Choose, we’ve donated thousands of dollars across hundreds of schools across the country. And so today we’re super excited to be giving away a $1,000 Donors Choose gift card to one Raleigh County Teacher.”
Thanks to Stuff The Bus, students will have the supplies they need when they return to school in Fayette County August 17th and in Raleigh County August 24th.
