Stuff the Bus campaign to be held Saturday

This year’s United Way “Stuff the Bus” campaign to collect school supplies from the community will be held from 9 am to 4 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the Walmarts in Portales and Clovis and at the Big Lots and OfficeMax in Clovis.

Erinn Burch, executive director of United Way of Eastern New Mexico, said that weekend is “tax free weekend” in New Mexico. On those days, gross receipts taxes are not collected on most school supplies and select clothing and computer items.

United Way volunteers will be at the store sites to collect donated school supplies. Bus Barn will deliver the supplies to the schools.

Anyone interested in volunteering can go to volunteerenm.org.

“We give these supplies to children to fill in the gap for the students who didn’t get what they needed for school,” Burch said.

She said any school supplies that are donated “stay local” in the county where they are collected.

Shayne Lopez, principal of James Elementary School in Portales, said without these donations many of students would not have school supplies because their parents don’t have “the expendable income in their budget to afford them.”

“Students who don’t have school supplies are at a disadvantage to participate in their education,” Lopez said. Students need pencils and paper to do math computations, form letters and write proper sentences.

“Especially since the pandemic, a lot of these students are learning these skills for the first time,” she said.

Donated backpacks help students keep communications from the teachers together so they get home to the parents, she said. Students have to take their readers home daily to do homework and “without a backpack they tend to lose them.”

“Maybe 20-25% or less of the students don’t have the supplies … it is a burden on the parents to provide the supplies,” she said.

Carrie Nigreville, executive director of strategic planning and school support for Clovis Municipal Schools, said: “I think all the learning activity our teachers are planning will require some sort of supply and the students who don’t have that -we don’t want them to miss out on learning activities.”

The bookbags people donate are important because the students can carry their Chromebooks and supplies, Nigreville said.

“I think the teachers are very grateful that the kids can get what they need (through the donated supplies) and that it’s very easy for the teachers to access these supplies for kids.”

Melanie Skinner, principal of the Brown Early Childhood Center in Portales, said the school has “a fair number of students” whose parents struggle to afford school supplies. Any donated supplies make it easier for them to afford the clothes they need to buy for their children to go back to school.

The center’s students are preschool and kindergarten so supplies such as crayons, pencils, scissors and glue as well as dry erase markers for response boards are examples of donations they need, Skinner said. Also needed are tissues, paper towels, zipper bags, baby wipes and plastic school boxes.

“We really appreciate all the sponsorships and donations we do get,” she said.