By Holly Fesperman LeeSalisbury Post
Communities in Schools of Rowan County started it’s annual School Tools Campaign Wednesday and so far that start hasn’t been a good one.As a United Way agency, Communities in Schools collects school supplies for needy Rowan County children each year during the month of August.
The Postal Service collection day, held this past Saturday, is always one of the organization’s biggest collection days. It didn’t turn out that way this year.
Postal carriers only collected about 200 pounds of donated supplies. Last year area post offices and mail carriers took in more than 2,000 pounds of supplies.
Vicky Slusser, executive director of Communities in Schools, said she was very disappointed.
“Last year, this postal collection just did fantastic,” she said.
“Right now, I would say with what we’ve gotten in, we need a little bit of everything.”
Communities in Schools still needs bookbags, three-ring binders, pens, pencils, paper, crayons and glue sticks.
Slusser also pointed out that some younger students also need hand sanitizer, tissues and paper towels ó items that are seldom donated.
“I was hoping it would be better, especially since this weekend was the tax-free weekend,” she said.
Last year, Communities in Schools provided supplies to more than 2,100 children.
That’s a small portion of the number of children who may be in need based on free- and reduced-lunch statistics for Rowan County.
Some elementary schools have more than 70 percent of students receiving free and reduced lunch services, and earlier this year, school officials announced that about half of students in the system qualify for free and reduced lunch.Communities in Schools will still be collecting school supplies for the rest of the month through their drop-off bins at Food Lion and Staples stores in Rowan County.
Contact Holly Lee at 704-797-7683 or hlee@salisburypost.com.