HANAMA’ULU – No less than three separate programs are attempting to ease the financial burden of buying back-to-school supplies. For students in need at any public school on Kaua’i, the Ready-to-Learn program is rolling. Supplies were delivered in time for
HANAMA’ULU – No less than three separate programs are attempting to ease the financial burden of buying back-to-school supplies.
For students in need at any public school on Kaua’i, the Ready-to-Learn program is rolling. Supplies were delivered in time for Wednesday’s opening of the Kapa’a public schools and other public grade-school locations where students are back in class.
With Ready-to-Learn, delivery volunteer James Yamamoto is supplying teachers with a bank of supplies, said Pam Parker, Kaua’i Ready-to-Learn coordinator.
Parents or children with needs can approach teachers for necessary school supplies the families couldn’t afford, Parker explained. If the teachers don’t have the requested items, they call Yamamoto, she said.
For several years running, Kaua’i Economic Development Board’s annual dinner has doubled as a fund-raiser for Ready-to-Learn. This year it raised about $75,000, the highest amount ever.
Because of that total, Ready-to-Learn programs on Maui and the Big Island also benefited from the Kaua’i fund-raiser. About $50,000 was raised to purchase school supplies for Kaua’i public schools.
Yamamoto, a retired teacher, has worked with many of the same teachers for the three years he’s been involved with the program.
The Salvation Army’s Lokahi program also made an Eastside run in time for recent school openings, said Maj. George Rodriguera of the Lihu’e Corps.
An Aug. 10 pickup date is set for families that applied for assistance in June and whose children go back to school in late August, Rodriguera said.
Donations of money and supplies are still being accepted at both the Hanapepe (near Hanapepe Stadium on Puolo Road) and Lihu’e Corps (on Hardy Street across from the Kaua’i War Memorial Convention Hall).
Donations can include filler paper, facial tissue, composition notebooks, crayons, pencils, compasses, rules, spiral notebooks, and steno notebooks, said Rodriguera.
Besides those applying for Lokahi assistance in June, others have come in with last-minute needs and have been placed on a waiting list. Rodriguera said he hopes the public response with cash and supplies will allow the Army to help those on the list.
A program that was only embraced by one public school in the central complex (state Department of Education public schools from Kalaheo to Hanama’ulu) so far is the work of the Central School Supply Task Force.
Formed as a result of families asking for help with school supplies at the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center, the program aims to raise funds for all public schools, from Kalaheo Elementary to King Kaumuali’i Elementary.
But only King Kaumuali’i parents, faculty and administration took the task force up on its offer. About $4,000 was raised through donations and car washes, and two pallets of school supplies were delivered to the school Thursday morning, said Bo Fabro, who spearheads the task force.
The task force is supplying two of the marble-design-cover composition notebooks to each student at King Kaumuali’i, plus other items which can stay with a classroom teacher for several years, such as scissors, rulers and protractors (25 per classroom), Fabro said.
To help raise funds, each student at the school was given at least one car wash ticket to sell. Three car washes were held during the 1999-2000 school year.
About 80 percent of the students sold at least one ticket.
Even well-funded agencies like the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Center-Lili’uokalani Trust reach a point sometimes where they can’t give any more, officials said. So when parents requested money for school supplies, the center decided to come up with a plan to allow families to become educated about how they can help themselves.
The center also wanted a fund-raising idea which could address long-term needs as well as the immediate school-supply requirements, said Mercy Labrador, center community development coordinator.
The idea also is to help educate teachers about how expensive it is to buy school supplies. Many teachers, being parents of school-age children, know how costly equipping their sons and daughters for school can be.
The program encourages parents and children to get their young ones involved in volunteerism at young ages, hopefully creating a lifelong trend, Labrador said.
“It does help the families,” she said of the task force’s work.
Fabro said that, as the central district’s needs may change from year to year, the task force can adjust to provide for those changing needs.
The group is working this school year to raise funds for school supplies for the 2001-02 school year, Fabro said.
The task force joined with Ready-to-Learn to purchase certain supplies in bulk, making the dollars stretch further, added Fabro.
