Hundreds of kids get free school supplies

KENNETT SQUARE >> Hundreds of underprivileged students in southern Chester County will not go to school unprepared this year thanks to a Longwood Rotary Club book bag project.

Over the weekend, about 60 volunteers helped to stuff book bags at the Kennett Senior Center with notebooks, rulers, glue, scissors, index cards, highlighters and other items essential for school. Students who receive these book bags otherwise would go to school unprepared, and much less likely to succeed.

“There were smiles all around,” said Jordan Gushurst, who heads up the project for the Longwood Rotary Club along with George Gower. “All kids picked the backpacks they wanted.”

The book bags will be distributed to 435 of the neediest students in grades K through 12 in the Avon Grove, Kennett Consolidated, Oxford and Unionville-Chadds Ford school districts.

The book bags will save parents about $50 to $60 in school supplies. For the most part, students in families living at poverty level or below poverty level receive book bags.

Gushurst said the book bags were purchased last year at clearance prices. He said all of the book bags are quality book bags that should last for years. He said this encourages students to care for their book bags so that next year they receive only supplies.

Donations for the book bags were also made by residents of Kendal-Crosslands, the Friends Home of Kennett Square and Family Promise of Southern Chester County. Several residents of the Friends Home even helped to pack the book bags Saturday.

Tax deductible donations to the Bookbag project can be made at https://longwoodrotary.com/page/projects-and-programs-list.

In addition, checks can be mailed to the Longwood Rotary Foundation, PO Box 781, Kennett Square, PA 19348.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Longwood Rotary Club members and volunteers display some of the backpacks that were distributed to underprivileged children in Chester County.

FRAN MAYE - MEDIANEWS GROUP Some of the school supplies that were put into backpacks are ready for distribution at the Kennett Senior Center.