Metro Organizations Help Families Go Back to School

NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Every penny counts in this economy, especially as students head back to school. Several metro organizations gave families a boost over the weekend by giving away school supplies.

The tradition of getting back to school supplies became community effort with people coming out in the thousands.

"We load them up, they get the back packs loaded up with school supplies, everything from paper pencils crayons," said Faith Church Senior Preacher Terry Bates.

At Faith Church in southwest Oklahoma City, over 5,000 came to get ready for school. Each child clutched their new supplies as they were handed out by over 500 volunteers.

For those at the church, it is away to give back to the community they worship in.

"In addition to caring about spiritual things, we care about practical things, that we can improve families, improve lives and improve communities," Preacher Bates said.

Across town, another group gave back to the community. The I-35 AutoMall wanted to help and they gave over 600 kids their jumpstart for school.

"Right now, with the way the economy is, we figured people really needed this. We are helping the children. They deserve the tools they need to help them go to school to learn," said Jon Schull the General Sales Manager of I-35 AutoMall

The Urban League did their part too. Along with getting the kids hooked up with supplies, they also threw in a career fair to educate their crowds.

And they didn't forget the back to school haircuts to complete the experience. Parents also got their own special treatment with a health check-up.

"This is a very needed service in our community. We felt if we get more information out to individuals, there is a better opportunity to prevent some of our health disease in our community," said Dr. Valarie Thompson, President-CEO of the Urban League of OKC.

No matter where people went to gather school supplies, each group that helped the community agreed on one principal.

"The need is vast, and it takes more than us to help meet the need of greater Oklahoma City area," said the Faith Church senior preacher.

A total of seven events were organized across the metro to help area communities. Faith Church alone gave out almost 100,000 supplies.