Aug. 22, 2024
BY JOHN BAILEY
The annual Catawba County United Way School Supply Drive is about meeting immediate and future needs of local public-school students.
This year nearly 9,000 items were collected by 30 community partners.
Whether it’s helping a homeless family get a backpack for their child for the first day of school, or it’s making sure classroom supplies like glue sticks and composition books are still available for students after the first month of school, every donation matters today and tomorrow.
Vicki Toepper, Catawba County Schools social worker for the Maiden feeder area said she gets many more requests for classroom supplies from families after Christmas break.
“That’s when the money is the tightest. That’s when the power bills are the highest and that’s where the supplies from this drive will have the greatest impact,” Toepper said.
And it’s items you wouldn’t normally expect for the classroom that can make all the difference for a student. These items include Ziplock bags, personal hygiene products even socks.
“You don’t know what the need is until the need is there,” Toepper said.
Donations to the CCUW school supply drive benefit students in all three local public-school districts: Catawba County, Hickory Public and Newton-Conover City Schools. Supplies are distributed to school districts directly.
Families can access supplies from the United Way drive through their schools’ guidance counselor office.
To learn more about the drive contact John Bailey at the CCUW, 828-327-6851, or if you’d still like to help visit the United Way’s online school supply page - https://www.ccunitedway.com/stuff-the-bus.
Thank you to this year’s CCUW School Supply Drive collection partners:
West Rock; Peoples Bank; St. Aloysius Catholic Church; Ashure Ministry; Hickory Community Yoga and Wellness; Catawba Co. Department of Social Services; Catawba Valley Healthcare; Rotary Club of Newton Conover; Shurtape; Patrick, Harper & Dixon Law; Catawba County Partnership for Children; Corning – Hickory and Trivium plants; Century Furniture; Pace at Home; Hanes; Catawba Co. Library System; Carolina Containers; The Green Room Community Theater; CountrySide Pet Hospital; Catawba Valley Insurance Agency; Adult Life Programs; Pepsi; Hickory Chair; ZF Chassis; Haworth; Certainteed; HSM Solutions; Publix – Hickory; Newton Elks Lodge.
The CCUW is also grateful for more than a dozen volunteers from Duke Energy for sorting and preparing the thousands of donations for the public school districts.
In the photo
Catawba County Schools social workers pick-up donations from the United Way School Supply drive, dividing up the items for the schools in their feeder areas. Photo by John Bailey/CCUW