ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
Back-to-school time will be arriving shortly, and a group of local citizens is looking to help families beforehand.
There will be a back-to-school drive from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10 at the Liberal Recreation Center at 950 S. Grant Ave., and the drive will feature free haircuts for all students in town, a free shoes drive, and some free school supplies.
Coordinator Tina Ward said a main goal of the event is to help families in the community.
“For about the past four or five years, I've donated myself with other stylists and barbers in the community to the haircut event they do at Sunflower Elementary School, but they only allow the Sunflower kids, and it just kind of broke my heart to see the siblings who needed haircuts not be allowed,” Ward said. “Last year, I was talking to another barber, Nate, who had missed the event, and he said he was really bummed about having to miss it because he hadn’t gotten the information in time, and he was wanting to do something to help. So I said, ‘Why don't we just do it ourselves? Why don't we do a community event where all kids can benefit from it?’ So we put everything together in three days, and it turned out awesome and helped so many children in the community. With this year, we got on top of it early on, which meant we were able to plan more and get a bigger space and some of that. For the haircuts, there will be 30 to 35 stylists taking care of that, some of whom will be able to stay the entire time and some who will be staying on a few hours, but we appreciate all the help we’re getting. Like I said, it's all for all the community.”
With this year being the second iteration of the event, Ward said she is excited to see what turnout will be like.
“I’m just really excited about how we’re sharing with people who need this. It's just exciting to give, and I’m looking forward to everybody coming out and benefiting off of what we're offering our community,” Ward said.
Co-coordinator Bettina West then talked about the shoe drive side of that day’s event.
“I’m looking for a good outcome, like last year. Last year we were able to give more than 100 pairs of shoes, and we were so glad to be able to help all of them,” West said. “I say if I help a couple kids, I'm successful. But like I said, last year we were able to give out more than 100 pairs, so I would love to exceed that this year. Right now, we already have more than 20 pairs of shoes donated, which is enough for me, but I'm always willing to go further. Knowing all these children will be blessed with new shoes, that just feels absolutely amazing.”
Ward said the decision to team up for the event was an easy one.
“I knew I wanted to plan to do haircuts, and she knew she wanted to do shoes, and she did shoes. But with how everything came together so quickly last year, we weren’t able to team up,” Ward said. “She wanted to give back, and I wanted to give back, so we talked about it in between. When it came down to it, she kind of pushed and said, ‘We need to get it going, and won't we just come together?’”
Another goal of the event is to give out some free school supplies to every child who comes through, and co-coordinator Kathy Pugh said that is also already seeing a strong response in terms of donations.
“We already have $200 worth of supplies already together. We will have a booth, and I am accepting more donations because my feeling is no student should be left behind,” Pugh said. “If we have 100 kids there to get haircuts, we want to give each kid a hot dog and chips, we want to give them a pair of shoes and some free school supplies. That will let them leave happy. There are so many people who strive to make things happen in this community, and I want people to know can come together and make even bigger things happen. This is truly a no child left behind drive. We want as many shoes as we can get, we want many school supplies as we can get. We want everybody to be there, come enjoy themselves, get a haircut, relax and see the other booths. Last year had an amazing response, I remember there was a line out the door of people waiting to get their kids in for a haircut, and there were multiple people who actually had to be turned away, which was heartbreaking, and that’s why planning started early this year.”
Pugh said making donations for the school supply drive is an easy process.
“People can drop off donations at Mark of Beauty Salon, I know Tina will have some space set aside, or they can call me at (620) 417-4782 and I can pick them up,” Pugh said. “We will also be having a booth at the event, so if people want to bring donations to the Recreation Center that day, that would also work. Again, the main goal is to help the kids in the community.”
Overall, Ward said, she is hoping for a successful event.
“Anybody who wants to come out and donate whatever, we accept all donations, whether it’s shoes or school supplies or anything like that, and anything that's not used will be put forward to the next year,” Ward said. “And if any high schooler wants to do community service, we can help them with that. If anyone wants to come out and just help out and be part of this, we can put them to work. At the end of the day, this is about bringing the community together to help the kids get a good start to the school year.”
