DECATUR -- About 20 families waited in line in the community room at Decatur City Hall Aug. 12 for the start of the second annual backpack giveaway in Decatur.
On the last day of summer vacation before the start of the 2019-20 school year, students from Decatur Middle, High School and Northside Elementary took advantage of the free school supply and backpack giveaway.
In 2018, Alyssa Allen and a few of her friends decided to organize the backpack giveaway for students in a low-income school district in the Northwest Arkansas area. The group's goal was to make sure that each student had the supplies he or she needed for the coming school year.
"Our goal was to serve Decatur because it has a 100% school lunch rate and we see a greater need here than, say Gravette or even Bentonville," Allen said.
The backpack giveaway added two new components to the event this year that the group felt were essential to the well being of each student.
"We were able to get hygiene products like hand soap, shampoo and dental items donated this year for the first time," said Allen.
The second component the group added was free haircuts. Ladale Clayton, a city council member and volunteer coach at Decatur High School, provided the haircuts and trim for all the students who attended the event.
By the end of the three-hour event, most of the backpacks, school supplies and hygiene products were handed out to the more-than-100 students from all three Decatur schools. What remained was donated to the Decatur School District to be handed out as needed by the students.
One of the giveaway sponsors, Gorilla Glue, donated 1,200 sticks to the giveaway. Other sponsors donated the school supplies and backpacks that the group distributed to the Decatur students. Allen is the first to admit that without this help the event would have never taken flight.
"I would like to thank our sponsors, the Decatur City Council and the Decatur School District for their contributions to making our event a big success," Allen concluded.
General News on 08/21/2019