Students get ready for school with Dream Center Backpack Giveaway
July 13 – The DeSoto County Dream today held its annual Backpack Giveaway at Latimer Lakes Park in Horn Lake. The Dream Center provided up to 1,500 backpacks and school supplies to children of Title I parents in DeSoto County.
We spoke with DeSoto County Dream Center Executive Director Jenna Kern to find out more about the Backpack Giveaway and why the Dream Center does it each year.
DCN: Can you explain what’s happening here today?
Kern: Through a generous grant from Homer Skelton Charitable Foundation, we are giving out 1,500 backpacks full of school supplies, praying over each student, and giving each student an age-appropriate devotional as well as free snow cones and free water. Starbucks is out here giving out free drinks and free hotdogs.
DCN: Is 1,500 backpacks probably your record for this?
Kern: It’s the highest that we’ve ever done, and we don’t just buy the cheapest supplies and the cheapest backpacks. We want something that’s going to last these kids for a while. So we buy nice backpacks. We buy Ticonderoga pencils and Crayola crayons, the things that teachers really want, that can really help them, not just giving them something to be a handout. The other thing that I really love about what we do is that we let the students pick out their own supplies. So we’re not giving them something saying this is what we think you need. We’re letting them pick out their favorite backpack and their favorite pencil pouch and their color folder and even that down to the devotional. They get to pick out the one that they want.
DCN: Why does the Dream Center do this?
Kern: Our mission statement is Title I school students and their families and we support them through four different ways: education, food, clothing and health care, so our whole mission is supporting Title One students and really one of the best ways that we think we can do that is by having these students start the school year with the supplies that they need.
DCN: How many years have you done this?
Kern: We first started doing our backpack giveaway just to our education students which started in 2014. So we’ve given our education students backpacks every year, but as far as this big giveaway goes, we’ve just been doing it for the last few years, so this is our fourth year.
DCN: Are you able to make any future connections with these students now going forward?
Kern: That’s an important part. Not that we just give out handouts, but really, that we let people know what we do there. Through coming out here, they’re getting information about Trinity Health Center, which is for the working uninsured, where people can be seen on a sliding scale. They’re getting information about our education program and about our emergency needs closet, so they’re finding out what kind of resource we are, so that if they have a need in the future, they know who to call.
