Volunteers Fill Backpacks With Tools For School

Photo By Quay DeVoll

ZANESVILLE,Ohio- It’s the time of the year parents love and children dread.

Summer is ending and it’s time to get back into school mode. More than 110 volunteers met at Zanesville Middle School to stuff backpacks with Tools for School. These volunteers are working in four shifts. Each shift has a goal to pack 250 backpacks.

“It helps people get their kids ready for school,” Tools for School Co-chair Ellen Shaw said. “So that they could just get what they need and that way the school doesn’t have to provide those supplies for kids. It takes a lot money to get the children ready for school.”

Tools for School began back in 2001, and since then Shaw said they’ve seen an exponential increase in families in need.

“Last year, we did 1,004 backpacks and this year we’re doing 976. We have just wonderful volunteers. Not only the ones that help backpack, but when we go to the stores to buy we have wonderful people that help us get what we needing the stores also,” Shaw said.

On Thursday the volunteers will distribute backpacks for the families that have already pre-registered at Eastside Community Ministry.