Letter
To The
Editor
(Editor’s Note: Each week,The Herald poses a “Question of the Week” on their facebook page with many responding. Comments made on the posts, may or may not be factual in nature and are to be noted as that person’s comment only.)
Growing Pains
With the addition of The Eureka Pharmacy helping with the elementary students supplies, we thought it would be a great time to re-introduce ourselves.
The Greenwood County Coalition school supply drive has evolved quite a bit over the last 20 years. (Yes, we have assisted in getting school supplies to students for that long). The idea originally came from Kim Douglas and started out rather small in that she gathered a small number of supplies and stuffed them with supplies and handed them out. She then recruited myself and the need and activities. She and I recruited Donna Whitehead and it grew a little more. We were able to get a few more donations and we grew more. With the addition of a few more members on the committee, we were a little more aggressive with getting donations, meanwhile the need continued to grow.
Over the next 10 years, we recruited a few more committee members and we actively sought donations. Luckily, a couple of our members were assertive and collected more donations and we started to hand out the supplies at the Methodist Church. Then we were blessed with the church offering to serve lunch to the students and families. We were able to recruit a few hair dressers to offer free haircuts and the students were offered fluoride treatments and given toothbrushes/toothpaste. During that period of time, we had many community volunteers help with the school supply drive as the numbers were up to over 200. It is worth noting that this work would have not been possible without the help of a generous community helping us.
Then covid came along and we kind of sat on our hands for a couple of years. But we are back and in full force trying to help the Eureka Jr/high school with the supplies. (the elementary students supplies are being provided by The Eureka Pharmacy.
This year, we will supply most supplies (we will not provide Kleenex, disinfectant wipes and gym shoes), to Jr/High school students in Greenwood County (if not already provided by another source).
We are still a relatively small committee and just jump in and do what is required. If you have or know of someone who would like to make a monetary donation, please contact: Emily Hansel 620-583-2614 Tracy McCoy 620-583-4109 Deina Rockhill 620-366-0376 Donna Whitehead 620-583-4575
