By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Tax Free Weekend is here in Missouri and that means United Way's Stuff the Bus will also be back out at Walmart in St. Joseph this weekend.
Yellow busses will be at both the north and south belt Walmart's collecting school supplies for the United Way of Greater St. Joseph.
Director of Community Investment Jodi Flurry says the variety of people that donate to the event is surprising
"Might be the retiree, I'm just going to call him the old grandpa, who comes out with a Walmart sack of markers and crayons and he's thinking I used to help my grandkids or my own kids with their school supplies now I want to help somebody else, he doesn't have kids anymore but he wants to give back a little bit and it just puts a smile on my face," Flurry tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
"Or when the little kids run over with their bag of supplies that they want to donate, so they've just done their back-to-school shopping, but they want to help other kids too."
Flurry says it's encouraging to see the amount of donations received from the St. Joseph community.
"And it doesn't take a lot, sometimes we'll have people roll up with an entire shopping cart full of school supplies, and sometimes it's just here's what I can afford, here's a couple packs of pencils and some glue," Flurry says. "And it's every little bit counts and it's amazing the generosity of our community to support this effort, both from the volunteer side of things as well as the donations they make in school supplies."
Since its inception in 2009 more than 262,000 school supplies have been donated to Stuff the Bus.
Busses will be out at both the north and south Belt Walmart locations in St. Joseph today from 8am to 7pm and tomorrow from 8am to 5:30pm.
Flurry says the event helps kids in need get school supplies, but supplies are also available for teachers
"We also if there's leftover supplies are able to offer that out to classrooms, and teachers, and schools, to help them out as well," Flurry explains.
Flurry says the event is also a great opportunity to volunteer in your community.
"So, it is a great way for people to volunteer and get engaged in their community, it's a way that parents with children can volunteer, so we also use United Way Stuff the Bus as a way to promote volunteerism and engagement in our community," Flurry says.
United Way will have a school supply list, provided by the St. Joseph School District, available at the busses for supplies that can be donated. Supplies range from pencils, crayons, and markers to tissue boxes and three ring binders.
