HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Your kids are almost back to the classroom and with that comes school supplies. And they can be expensive. But some organizations in the area are trying to help.
Next Step, Be Your Best You, is a community-based organization and they hosted a back-to-school event where they provided free school supplies to anyone who needs them, and those supplies ran out fast.
“I have four school aged children myself and every year when I send my kids back to school, I always see children that don’t have what they need so I got in the habit of buying extra school supplies…so this year I got with my friend here and said we should just throw an event and help families that may be going through it like us,” said Angel Pollard, owner of 'Next Step, Be Your Best You.'
Angel Pollard and Angelia Duncan teamed up and gathered school supply donations in preparation for this event and these supplies were given away a lot faster than expected.
“We had a line at 10:00…we started seeing the supplies get down probably around 11:30 right up until 12:00.”
The original event was scheduled from 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. but items ran out by noon.
They were able to help about 145 families get new school supplies.
“To me, kids need those supplies, parents are not able to do it, the economy the way it is right now and on top of that when kids go to school and they don’t have what they need…it impacts them,” said Pollard.
And it's not just kids and parents who are affected by these high prices.
“The teachers are affected as well cause then it’ll have to come out of their pockets to make sure that their class has what they need and then just having the confidence you know knowing that you can go to school and have everything that you need,” said Duncan.
This event also included several vendors who also gave back to the community.
“I’m all about giving back so I came out and although I’m selling food, I have given away free food to the kids today just to show my support,” said Jermaine Reynolds, owner of 'Big Bonez BBQ & Catering.'
Reynolds said that he saw a lot at the event.
“I saw Black, White, Hispanic, all together smiling…getting their faces painted, actually getting school supplies, come and getting food, everybody getting along. And it’s just beautiful.”
And Angel and Angelia said that this whole event wouldn't have been possible without the help from vendors, the volunteers and from donations the community.
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