NORTH, S.C. — After learning online for about 15 months, kids are in need of school supplies for the new year, and the Town of North is stepping up to help.
North's newest campaign, 'Stuff the Bus,' aims to help collect school supplies to make sure students have what they need to succeed. The Orangeburg County School District provided the town with a school bus for residents to fill with school supplies.
"National Night Out is when the community and law enforcement come together," explained Lin Shirer, North's Chief of Police. 'We used to have it in the park, but we haven't had it because of COVID. We converted it to 'Stuff the Bus' to try to help the kids."
"The campaign kicked off to help our students get a good start in school," said Mayor Julius Jones. "We also hope that it attracts some community involvement."
"We will take donations to get the school supplies or you donate school supplies," Shirer said. "We will keep them in the town hall until it's time to give them out because we don't want to leave them in the bus all night."
All donations can be made at the town hall. Then, those supplies will be distributed to kids at the town square on August 7th. North's police chief says book bags and cleaning supplies will be hot commodities this year.
"Bookbags are going to be essential; that's what everyone wants," Shirer said. "We will put supplies inside the bookbags and get it all together for the kids this year."