Community Comes Together To Help Students

More than 2,000 students in Bucks County who need a helping hand this school year will get one thanks to area businesses, nonprofits and community members.

Thanks to donations and many volunteers, 2,128 fully packed school bags for elementary through high school students were packed this week. The charity work marks the end of the annual Stuff The Bus campaign put on by the United Way of Bucks County along with sponsors Bank of America, Cummins, PECO, Sesame Place and Wells Fargo.

The bags will be delivered to all 13 school districts, 27 nonprofit groups and several private schools in Bucks County. Bags will be passed out to families and students who have been identified as being in need of assistance, said Danielle Bush, director of community and volunteer engagement for the United Way of Bucks County.

For Jennifer Dredge, a Bristol native who now lives in West Chester, she was thrilled with the amount of donations and support from the community.

“The numbers (of bags needed) grow each year. We went from 361 to 500 to 800 to 1,000 to 1,800 to now 2,200,” Dredge, who helps plan the donation drive every year, said. “Yet more people help out every year. It’s emotional to see.”

Bush and Dredge both said there were so many donations this year that volunteers had two take two trips on a bus from the Lower Bucks Family YMCA to the packing location at Sesame Place in Middletown.

“The kids are so excited when they pick them up, Mary Bracken, a nurse at the Morrisville Borough School District, said Thursday during a break from stuffing backpacks.

School nurses like Bracken, guidance counselors and other administrators determine which students are in need of a bag and submit their requests to the United Way of Bucks County every year, Bush said. She added that in return, the United Way of Bucks County works with its partners to fulfill the request.

Bracken said she sees first hand how much students and families appreciate the donations. She said items students who receive a stuffed back and don’t have use for all the supplies often share them with siblings who may need certain items.

“I give them out throughout the school year,” Bracken said. “If a bag breaks or if I see a student who needs some help, I have bags the kids can have.”

Some of the older kids are a bit embarrassed to ask for help but school officials often get to know the students and know their needs, Bracken said.

Along with volunteers from the Dow Chemical, the Detective Christopher Jones Foundation, GE, Sesame Place, Wells Fargo and numerous other companies and groups, some parents and their kids who have previously benefited from the program lent their time to help pack bags.

Dredge used to benefit from a school supply donation drive and knows the struggle some parents face first hand. She said the a bag filled with school supplies can mean a whole lot to parents and students.

The Stuff the Bus program is in its sixth year at the United Way of Bucks County and will continue again next year.