While school may officially be out for summer, many individuals and businesses, including United Way of Santa Rosa County, are planning and managing logistics for this year’s CRAM-the-VAN school supply drive.
As in past years, this drive helps ensure Santa Rosa’s students will be properly prepared to start the 2016-17 school year off right in August.
Last year, the collective generosity of Santa Rosa helped raise nearly 15,000 pounds of supplies for students — 7 percent over the previous year.
Individuals and businesses are again invited to partner with UWSRC and become part of this powerful school drive supply initiative.
“We’re inviting the Santa Rosa community to help volunteer, donate funds, school supplies and backpacks. Businesses are also needed to become collection drop-off host sites and hundreds of volunteers are needed to help us sort and stuff backpacks,” says the event’s coordinator in Santa Rosa, Katie Thompson, Operations and Campaign Coordinator for UWSRC. “Many students are embarrassed to admit in class that their families cannot afford school supplies; the success of CRAM-the-VAN lets those students know that Santa Rosa is behind them and truly cares about their futures,” she adds.
Receiving a well-rounded education is a crucial opportunity that can help Santa Rosa’s at-risk students move from poverty to becoming productive and responsible adult society members.
To date, the program has assisted more than 30,000 public, private, religious, and homeschooled students in Santa Rosa who fall within Florida’s poverty guidelines.
More than 44 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunches; recent statistics released by the school district identify nearly 1,200 homeless students within Santa Rosa; CRAM-the-VAN is the county’s key initiative for providing school supplies to our most vulnerable students.
The supply drive is 100 percent funded by public donations and volunteers. UWSRC donates facilities and staff for the drive.
No administrative fees are deducted by UWSRC to receive the donations and supplies, and coordinate the drive on behalf of Santa Rosa.
Contributions reach students and teachers fully intact; the drive greatly reduces the need for teachers to reach into their own pockets to purchase supplies for students who are without.
UWSRC offers leftover supplies from the drive to Santa Rosa teachers and any remaining supplies are stored at the UWSRC warehouse to be held for teachers to pick-up throughout the school year when their classroom supplies run low.
To distribute supplies to students in August, UWSRC’s supply shopping must be complete by the end of July.
To help prepare Santa Rosa’s students for the upcoming school year, and life, we hope readers will consider contacting UWSRC as soon as possible to make a donation, host a drop-off box or volunteer.
Visit UnitedWaySRC.org, or contact Katie Thompson at 850-623-4507.
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CRAM-a-THON Schedule
July 5:Applications will be available for qualifying students
July 11: Host businesses start displaying supply boxes
July 28: CRAM-the-VAN visits Walmart Supercenters at Gulf Breeze, Tiger Point and Pace-Milton locations
July 29: Student applications due to United Way of Santa Rosa County
Aug 1: Collect Santa Rosa supply box collections from drop-off locations
Aug 1 to 5: Volunteer Sorting and Packing Backpack Week at UWSRC
Aug 8 to 10: Stuffed Backpack Distribution Dayat UWSRC
Aug 11 & 12: Teachers may pick-up supplies at UWSRC
Aug 15: Public school begins in Santa Rosa County
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Hey Santa Rosa, Let's CRAM-the-VAN