Photography and Story by Tom Beckwith 

After eight weeks of community-wide collection drives, nearly 56,000 individual school supplies were donated to United Way’s 14th Annual Stuff the Bus project. Two thousand fully packed backpacks were distributed across the service area. In addition, thousands of school and teacher supplies were provided to support educators. 

James Evans, Chief Communications Officer of Rutherford County School said, “These aren’t just pencils, scissors and backpacks to the students that receive them. These supplies instill hope and confidence in students that need it most. Those are things that will never be taken away from them and will guide them through the rest of their school years and beyond.” For many families, it’s an impossible choice between purchasing necessary school supplies, groceries or gas to get where they need to go. The United Way is committed to helping alleviate the burden of these decisions through programs like Stuff the Bus. 

For more information or to get involved with the United Way, go to www.yourlocaluw.org.