Olathe Public Schools Foundation prepares for school supplies drive distribution

Monday and Tuesday this week, the Olathe Public Schools Foundation and groups of volunteers are preparing for school supplies drive distribution by stuffing more than 2,000 backpacks with supplies needed to head back to school.

Throughout the summer, the foundation has been accepting donations through public drive drop boxes and by check to its annual school supplies drive. The foundation usually spends about $30,000 in all on the program on top of whatever is donated during the summer.

Rep. Sharice Davids, Kansas Democrat, joined Olathe Chamber of Commerce members in stuffing backpacks for middle and high schoolers as part of the Olathe Public Schools Foundation's annual school supplies drive.

"It's one of my favorite programs that we coordinate because of the direct impact that it has on the kids going back to school," Alice Snider, programs specialist for the OPS Foundation, previously told the Olathe Reporter.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week volunteers will continue to stuff bags by age group in the Mill Creek Campus gym through assembly lines — a line dedicated to Pre-K, another for Kindergarten through second grade, an additional for third grade to fifth grade and a joint line for middle and high school. Each backpack will be filled with the corresponding new school supplies needed for each age group, including crayons, markers, pencil pouches or boxes, index cards, notebooks, pens, pencils and folders.

When a group from the Olathe Chamber of Commerce were stuffing backpacks during their group volunteer slot Monday morning, they were joined by Rep. Sharice Davids, who represents Kansas District 3 in the U.S. House of Representatives and is up for reelection in 2022.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

On Thursday, some of the bags will be distributed to some students. The rest of the backpacks will go into buildings for school leaders to give to students or families with an identified need headed into the new school year. Additional supplies are also made available throughout the school year as needed.

"If a family has a need, then we're going to meet that need," Snider said previously. "It takes that stress off. I can just imagine being the kid who's sitting in class, and your teacher asks you to get out your notebook, and ‘I don't have one.'"

The drive itself runs through Aug. 12.