Stingray Chevrolet was filled with book bags and school supplies Monday morning as the Kiwanis Club of Plant City held its annual Stuff the Bus project.
Each year Kiwanis provides an abundance of book bags stocked with all the necessary school supplies to students across the community. Event Chair Sharon Moody said this year they have more than 1,250 bags to stuff. The items will be distributed to 28 schools in August.
“We drop the book bags off at schools and the schools identify the students in need,” Moody said. “So if a student is starting the school year and they don’t have a backpack and pencils and paper and all those things, they can go to the school and ask for one of these bags.”
Volunteers from the National Honor Society at Plant City High School, PCHS Key Club and a few Kiwanis members got to the car dealership bright and early Monday morning to begin the long process of filling each bag and returning them to their designated school’s table. It takes approximately two hours to fill the bags and then they are bundled and sent to the individual schools before classes officially return.
The Kiwanis Club of Plant City has been providing for local students for decades and each year the demand for assistance continues to grow. Moody said that there is a large need in Plant City and neighboring schools for supplies and aid for students and that no matter how much the Stuff the Bus project provides there is always room for further growth.
The bags are filled with items like gel pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, composition books, glue sticks, ink pens and a variety of other items a student will need. Steve Hurley at Stingray Chevrolet always allows the group to use a large room at the dealership to set up a massive assembly line so that volunteers can quickly and efficiently weave through the supplies filling each bag.
“Unity in the community donated $11,000 toward this great project,” Moody said. “We appreciate them very much. They do a lot in the community and Kiwanis picked up the other part to round this off. Unity is one of our major sponsors and without them this wouldn’t be possible.”
Those interested in supporting the program next year can contact the Kiwanis Club of Plant City or reach out to Moody at SharonMoody91@yahoo.com.