Getting Students Equipped for School

Among the Rotarians volunteering at the Kroc Center school supply distribution were Pam Tubbs (right) and Ann Baldwin.

Rotary Club of Norfolk members made sure some of our region's most vulnerable children get to start the new school year with the right supplies. For two weeks we donated crayons, notebooks, scissors and money for the Salvation Army and WVEC-TV 13 Write Stuff school supply campaign. Then on August 26 and 27 more than 20 Rotarians staffed the distribution at the Salvation Army's Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center. We helped document financial need for families receiving backpacks stuffed with new school supplies and also registered them to receive holiday gifts from Toys for Tots, the Joy Fund and the Angel Tree in December. As a bonus we got to meet some of the bright-eyed students eager to start school. They included kindergartners up to high school seniors.

Thanks go to our Rotary Club member Major Stephen Long, who heads the area Salvation Army command; Rotarian Jim Kitz, our community service chair who spearheaded this project, Rotarian Pam Tubbs who headed our volunteer team and all the Rotarians who gave supplies and volunteered their time.