Hot dogs, icy pops, back packs and hair conditioner, those were just a few of the things on the tables in Hallsville Saturday afternoon.
Nearly 500 returning students marked the approach of their summer vacations’ end the afternoon of August 5 at Hallsville’s Bob Lemone Building.
Jessica Estrada directs incoming first-grade student Niah Fliess to her next table during the Back to School Bash.
That is where at least 50 volunteers from the Hallsville Inter-church Council along with some from other local agencies and businesses worked together to hold the 21st annual Hallsville Back to School Bash.
“It’s great to see the kids after the summer and it’s great to see the kids excited about school,” longtime Back-to-School Bash volunteer Sherri Briedwell said after asking some parents if they wanted information about Hallsville R-IV’s free and reduced lunch program and I think we really are supplying a service to kids. School supplies are expensive.”
Briedwell estimated she has volunteered at the bash for nearly 20 years. “The kids,” she said when explaining what has kept her returning every year, “It’s for the kids.”
While she has no specific favorite memory, she said she will always remember the excitement.
“The excitement of a kid who gets the color binder she wants or the excitement some of them show when they get their new back pack, the happiness, the smiles, the excitement, I will always remember that.”
Briedwell was not the only educator who sees the event as being about more than school supplies.
“As a retired Hallsville teacher, I truly enjoy this event as I get to see many former students of mine and can get caught up on what they are doing in life as young adults,” Kena Elkin Forbis, retired R-IV kindergarten teacher said…
For the complete article see this week’s edition of the Centralia Fireside Guard.
