Sulphur Springs students receive their free school supplies for the upcoming school year.
In collaboration with our dedicated community partners, the Tampa YMCA is proud to prepare youth for success in all stages of their lives. This back-to-school season, we are partnering with the Hillsborough Education Foundation and our local community to provide school supplies for students at our Sulphur Springs PK-8 Community Partnership school.
The "Erase the Need" back-to-school drive is an essential initiative that ensures students start the school year equipped for success. Throughout the summer, our 14 YMCAs collected the most needed school supplies, including backpacks, binders, colored pencils, notebooks, crayons, index cards, scissors, rulers and more!
On August 8th, our YMCA staff distributed backpacks and school supplies to roughly 300 students. In addition to the backpacks, students and families enjoyed refreshments and visited educational vendor booths at the Sulphur Springs Back-to-School Bash.
Wayne Johnson, Senior Program Director at Sulphur Springs, shares, "Over 90 percent of our students have multiple siblings in the household that attend school. Data shows that the Sulphur Springs community's unemployment rate is very high. Many of our parents live on fixed incomes, and there is little cushion or savings once the light, rent, cell phone, internet and water bills are paid. The additional expense of buying new clothes and shoes is high. Couple that with having to purchase school supplies; parents often put buying them on the back burner or wait until the next paycheck. The Back-to-School Bash is essential because it allows students and families to receive resources they couldn’t otherwise afford."
He adds, "Students benefit from the supplies we are able to provide because they are prepared and ready to learn on the first day of school. When students don't have a pencil or a notebook, they often experience feeling inadequate or less than their peers. To ask a peer for paper or a pencil can cause a student to feel shame. Even deeper, some students internalize that this peer’s family must love them more than their family loves or cares about them. We want to ensure that all our students enter the first day of school feeling prepared and confident!"
We are grateful to our members, staff and community partners for making this back-to-school season a success.
Published Wednesday, August 14, 2024.