Concord Afton Sunset Rotary Club seeks support for their “School Tools” school supply drive.
Now in their 6th year sponsoring the program, they emphasize that donations are needed early this year with our public schools starting on August 10th. The collection is from July 15th through August 7th.
The program supports the children and teachers of Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City Schools. Donations are collected in barrels throughout the community and then organized and delivered by Rotary Club members.
📍 Collection bins are located at: Staples (Carolina Mall), Gibson Mill Market (upstairs), St. James the Greater Concord, TEAM HONEYCUTT/Allen Tate Realtors (on Concord Parkway), and Core Fitness 101 in Kannapolis.
With school starting earlier, the Rotary Club wants to deliver to most schools before the students arrive. Staples at Carolina Mall has been generous to allow this project to be the primary recipients of the $5 donation boxes they sell and place in their barrel at the store. Watch their Facebook page, as additional collection locations are expected to be added this week.
They are also looking for additional businesses, churches, Sunday School classes, book clubs, scouts, and other organizations who might want to have a school supply collection. Contact them via email.
- What’s New? An Amazon Wish List! If you can’t make it to a drop off location, you can easily support this effort by shopping online. View the Wish List here.
How Did the School Supply Drive Start?
In 2018, Rotarian Cindy Fertenbaugh contacted WSOC Channel 9 to see if their club could get a new non-profit to sponsor the local school supply drive in support of both Cabarrus County Schools and Kannapolis City Schools. WSOC didn’t have a consistent Cabarrus County coordinator so she assumed that role and the Concord-Afton Sunset Rotary Club agreed to be the sponsor.
That first year they collected 20,333 items, while the total collections over 5 years have topped 160,000 school supplies! Now in their 6th year as the sponsor, they are continuing to evolve how they advertise and collect supplies, and even what supplies are most needed.
- In 2021, they applied for and received a Rotary Grant to place supply holders at 14 schools serving public high school students across Cabarrus County so that students could pick up a pencil or highlighter on their own. They continue to provide supplies specifically for the supply holders.
For more information, you can follow the School Tools campaign or the Afton Rotary Club’s Facebook pages or email them with questions about how you can get involved.
Financial donations can be mailed to: Rotary Club of Concord-Afton Sunset, P.O. Box 5588, Concord, NC 28026-5588.
Planning to visit? Tell ’em Cabarrus Weekly sent ya!
