Sixth annual Back to School Bash serves students with school supplies, clothes

NELSONVILLE — Producing their “golden tickets” to receive free school supplies, backpacks, clothing and shoes, haircuts, headphones, photographs and other items, an estimated 1,500 students from five public school districts in Athens County waited their turns in line Wednesday to participate in the 6th annual Back to School Bash.

The event lasted nearly eight hours, starting at 10 a.m. with Athens City Schools students going first. Each year, Athens City Schools and Nelsonville-York City Schools alternate which district starts and finishes, since they are the county’s two largest school districts, said Christy Denney, public relations specialist for Athens County Job and Family Services. JFS hosted the event at 10 W. Washington St. in Nelsonville, a spacious building that was formerly Fruth Pharmacy and originally built as a Kroger grocery store.

This year’s order, in increments of about two hours each, was Athens City Schools, followed the trio of New Story, Beacon School, and Tri-County Career Center; Federal Hocking Local Schools; Alexander Local Schools; Trimble Local Schools; and Nelsonville-York City Schools. Students and their parents registered for their golden ticket participation in the spring, filling out forms that listed each student’s sizes for items like school shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, shorts, sweatpants and shoes.

This is the third Back to School Bash at the present site on West Washington, Denney said. It is located next to Nelsonville Public Square, where more than 50 community partners working with JFS — social service agencies, private businesses, law enforcement agencies, the Nelsonville Fire Department, and nonprofits — took part at their vendor booths, offering free items to children and their parents.

The Back to School Bash alone brought about 80 volunteers into the building to help with the giveaways, Athens County JFS Executive Director Jean Demosky said. She added that 45 were JFS staff members volunteering the day for the event.

This is the first year that the site has reopened as the Athens County Community Cares Resource Center. Demosky said families who are Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) eligible receive two outfits for each child — a hoodie sweatpants, and a T-shirt and shorts, along with socks and shoes, either Nike or Under Armour brand.

Some students, up to 200 of them, did not preregister for the event. In those cases, they still receive backpacks, school supplies and boots, courtesy of Rocky Boots, but do not get the items that required fittings for sizes, like shirts and sweatpants, Demosky said. Still another 20% or so of the students are ones who registered but do not qualify for TANF, somewhere around 400 students. In those cases, she offered their golden tickets are covered by the Athens County Community Cares Fund, a nonprofit.

“There so many children just in Athens alone who are not benefits eligible, but still have a real need,” Demosky said. “If you have a large family, that’s a lot of Nikes to buy.”

Demosky said she and Tracy Partee, JFS chief financial officer, came up with the Back to School Bash idea back in 2018, after Partee had observed the same event in Perry County, held at its county fairgrounds. Athens County JFS held its first event in 2019 at the former Elder-Beerman space at the Market on State mall in Athens. During the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021, the event was held as a drive-thru system at the mall, followed by the past three years at its present site.

“Our event has become more like a festival, with all of the vendors we have out here,” Demosky said.

She added that the festival atmosphere is accomplished by having “happy greeters” bid hello to families entering the building at 10 West Washington. Three volunteers with that fun job were donning the costumes of Spider-Man, Snow White and Bluey — a children’s character by way of Australia.

The first family to enter the Back to School Bash represented two Athens schools and Tri-County Career Center: Madison Howland, 17, a senior at Tri-County; sister Victoria Kiser-Dains, 14, a ninth-grader at Athens High School; and their brother Levi Kiser-Dains, 13, an eighth-grader at Athens Middle School.

Madison, who is studying New Media — a combination of videography, podcasting, newswriting, publishing and photography — said the Back to School Bash lets students pick out some of their own items, like backpacks, which eases the burden on each student as school approaches.

“This helps individuals who are low-income and can’t otherwise afford stuff like this,” she said. “It’s very helpful to those individuals.”

The three siblings were accompanied by Madison’s mom, Rita Howland, and their uncle, Tyler Kiser.

“I’m just glad the community is able to pull together and help each other out, and help the kids out,” Kiser said.

“This really helps,” Rita said. “I’ve got three kids I have to buy for. Three pairs of shoes alone would be $150 or more.”

One of the more than 50 community partners providing its service Wednesday, inside Stuart’s Opera House, was the Kathryn McCoy Resource Project. The nonprofit supplies hygiene products such as shampoo, soap, body wash, toothpaste, and other items to families. It is named for Kathryn McCoy, a beloved Nelsonville-York band director who died in 2019 at the age of 95.

“I helped take care of her for seven years,” said Challie Abraham, who coordinated the effort.

Normally, Abraham said her daughter Claire Abraham, 16, would have coordinated the event, since Claire founded the Kathryn McCoy Resource Project five years ago at age 11 and does all of its fundraising. But she is at band camp, her mom said, an especially important camp this year since Claire is the band’s color guard captain.

Abraham said her daughter raises funds through grants and events such as a Boogey and Barbecue fundraiser held at the Eclipse Company Store in June. She has created hygiene product closets for other local school districts, and has plans for more. She also wants to open a mobile unit one day.