Back to School Bash with JCSO

Photo Credentials: Tayanna Harris with Hey Tay Photography and Velda Cook with Photographic Arts, LLC. Above is a section of the line that circled around the arena.

Saturday August 10th, 2019 the FOX4 Love Fund for Children in partnership with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office hosted a Back to School Bash at the Silverstein Eye Center Arena. In attendance were vendors and community partners offering free immunizations, child safety seat checks, and information of their services to the public. The event was structured to get not only the students but their entire family “back to school” ready. The Love Fund, JCSO, and numerous companies held drives promoting the event and collecting supplies all summer long. The Bash was the largest held by either organization and resulted in thousands of students in our community being equipped with the supplies they need to start the school year. This event was a success thanks to community leaders, volunteers, vendors, and donors like you.

Photo Credentials: Velda Cook with Photographic Arts, LLC.

Photo Credentials: Velda Cook with Photographic Arts, LLC. Pictured is about 3,000 backpacks filled with supplies.

Representatives from Safe Kids Metro KC performed Child Safety checks for the families.Many booster seats were donated, fitted, and installed at the event.

The setup for the backpack distribution. Dozens of volunteers collected, counted, and sorted these backpacks all week before distributing to the public. Pictured is about 3,000 of those packed backpacks.

The Mid Continent Library was in attendance educating families about their mobile service, “Reading Rocket!” After recognizing the challenges of families living in “transportation deserts,” or areas where public transportation is not easily accessible and families may not be able to get to the Library during its business hours, or at all. Although all services provided by the Library are free and open to anyone, families in these areas had not been able to take advantage of them because of the lack of transportation, and they often did not have the funds to supplement the educational resources on their own. Read more about Read Rocket here.

Allyson Summers (Executive Director) and Veronica Champion (Development Coordinator) with the FOX4 Love Fund for Children.