Kathy House, of the Central Ohio Youth Center, left, and Corie Bix, of the United Way of Union County, stand with a portion of the school supplies collected during the “Learn United” School Supply Drive. All supplies were distributed to area school districts. Those in need of supplies may contact guidance counselors at their school. (Photo submitted)
United Way of Union County (UWUC) finished its annual school supply drive last week.
More than 50 boxes were distributed to local businesses and organizations to collect supplies for the upcoming school year.
The supplies were sorted by residents of the Central Ohio Youth Center (COYC) on Route 4. The staff and youth at COYC help with this project every year.
“Our United Way has a small staff so the drive would be tricky without the support and the use of COYC’s space,” Corinne Bix, UWUC Director, said. “They use their gym to divide the supplies up between all four school districts in our service area; Marysville, Fairbanks, North Union and Jonathan Alder.”
Kathy House, COYC Education Administrator, leads the sorting efforts at COYC and reports the number of supplies collected. Some of the highlights of this year’s collection include 38,000 pieces of notebook paper, 10,088 crayons, 7,523 pencils, 2,966 markers, 2,580 bottles of hand sanitizer, 1,006 glue sticks/bottles, 572 composition books, 436 book bags, 325 highlighters and 59 boxes of tissues.
Adham Schirg, Superintendent Fairbanks Schools, was very pleased with how much the community donated this year.
“It was a great surprise to see how much there was for our families,” Schirg said.
Schein Dental in Columbus gave a large donation of four pallets of supplies delivered directly to COYC. Memorial Health also directly delivered its hefty donation.
“It was a huge team effort and one more reason why Union County is a great place to live,” Bix said.
Parents who are in need of school supplies for their children can contact their school guidance counselor.