Photo courtesy dreamstime.com, logo courtesy United Way Alberta Northwest

By Erika Rolling

Back to school

Volunteers, supplies and donations needed for Tools for School program

Aug 5, 2022 | 6:00 AM

The next academic year is nearing and the United Way Alberta Northwest Tools for School program is back. It is for children that are living below the poverty line with families that can’t afford school supplies.

In 2021, the non-profit was able to help 863 children in communities across northwestern Alberta, spanning from Grande Cache to the Northwest Territories border and from Slave Lake to the B.C border. Of the 863 requests last year, 788 of them required both a backpack and school supplies.

Executive Director of United Way Alberta Northwest Tracy Zuk says Tools for School has been running for over a decade.

“We do this program to make sure as many students as possible have what they need to start the school year.”

Zuk says there is a number of ways people can help.

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“We could actually use some more volunteers to help pack backpacks on August 23 and 24, so there’s a variety of ways people, organizations and businesses can get involved,” she says.

Monetary donations can be made through their website, supplies donations at Staples in Grande Prairie and drop-off school supplies donations at Centre 2000 on August 22.

“It’s a little difficult from year-to-year to know what we need because it does change. Every year different grades are higher need than previous, so there’s really no consistency. So it’s really hard to order supplies.”

The non-profit says items they usually run out of are:

• Markers/pencil crayons
• 2″ binders
• 3″ binders
• Large glue sticks
• White erasers
• Scissors
• Pencil boxes/cases
• Whiteboard markers
• Notebooks

Around 921 requests for students across the northwest region have been made to United Way for the program.

“Students shouldn’t have to go without school supplies, you know it’s a good way to start the school year off on the right foot when they do.”

“Right now we have backpacks going to Manning, Slave Lake, High Prairie, Fox Creek, and everywhere in between,” Zuk notes.

She believes a greater reason for the influx in applications to receive supplies and a backpack for school has a lot to do with the pandemic.

“People are still recovering. There’s still a lot of people that are out of work, or just started going back… and definitely that people that have been at work for a bit are playing catch up.”

The cost of living has had an effect on the program Zuk says, “that doesn’t help us when we are trying to purchase supplies and there’s not a lot of money to do so…I’m hoping we can get enough to cover everybody.”

If you want to help or volunteer in the Tools for School program, you can call United Way Alberta Northwest at 780-531-1105 or go on their website to find out how.