Como spreads the love with school supply giveaway
Their new backpacks stuffed with fresh school supplies, hundreds of kids in the Como neighborhood are ready for the school year.
“We come together every year as a community to service our children and families,” said Joyce Bowens-Thomas, chairwoman of the Como Community Churches & Partners Back-to-School Care & Share.
Families began lining up early Saturday at Como Montessori School to receive school supplies, health and wellness information, school uniforms, haircuts and more at the event, which aimed to “Pack-A-Back With Love” in its eighth year.
“We don’t just give them supplies,” Bowens-Thomas said. “We’re letting them know that, as a community, we support them educationally.”
More than 550 children will benefit from the program, which collects donations and distributes supplies to kids living in the Como neighborhood. Bowens-Thomas said kids who received supplies in past giveaways are now volunteering, giving back to what helped them.
“They have seen from a young age that the community is very important,” she said. “They’ve learned how to become community leaders.”
Brittany Prestidge, 22, said her home community has helped her “get where I want to be.” She’s a senior at the University of Texas at Arlington and wanted to make a difference in the neighborhood, which she called “very different than 20 years ago.”
“It’s getting better,” Prestidge said. “Programs like this are making it better.”
Como is a historically African-American neighborhood in west Fort Worth but has become more diverse and family-oriented recently, said Margie Ruffin, 17, a senior at the Young Women’s Leadership Academy. Ruffin credited the back-to-school community effort for helping her and others “grow into well-rounded people.”
“The whole team is coming together to make sure our kids have a good educational foundation, and that’s the field I want to go into,” Ruffin said. “This is where I need to come in.”
Mark David Smith, 817-390-7808
Tarrant County roundup
▪ Registration for the Tarrant County Back to School Roundup, which provides children from low-income families with free school supplies, immunizations, dental and vision screenings and haircuts, ended Saturday.
▪ The roundup will be Thursday at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth. More than 10,000 students from 20 Tarrant County school districts are expected to attend.
▪ Students have to be preregistered to attend.
▪ Information: backtoschoolroundup.org or call 211.
This story was originally published August 15, 2015 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Como spreads the love with school supply giveaway."