Destrehan-based St. Charles United Methodist Church (UMC) recently announced its uniform and school supply drive, organized to benefit 400 children attending Luling Elementary School this August.
The drive began earlier this month and will run until the end of July, when the church plans to deliver all goods collected to Luling Elementary school administrators for distribution ahead of school starting next month. Even though the drive officially ends in late July, St. Charles UMC Pastor Michelle Harris said she and her staff can continue to accept items as late as August 3.
St. Charles UMC recently learned of the students’ needs after hiring Brittany Martin, a former speech pathologist at Luling Elementary, who identified the school as an organization worthy of running a drive for.
“She brought to our attention the need…was very great in terms of kids in need of school supplies and uniforms and backpacks,” Harris said. “And so, we just decided to partner with [Luling Elementary] because of this relationship [Martin] had with the principal there.”
Church leaders first met with Luling Elementary’s principal Carol Bowie-Cotton to learn more, and afterwards began organizing and promoting their drive online.
The church, located at 1905 Ormond Boulevard, is currently collecting new or gently used uniforms, new packs of underwear, backpacks, sweaters, jackets, leggings and various school supplies students will need during the school year such as dry erase markers, erasers, pencils and composition notebooks.
Harris said the drive also has a monetary donation option, where donors can donate $45 via the church’s website in lieu of supplies, funds the pastor said will cover a backpack, one full school uniform set and a pack of underwear for the new school year.
For donors wishing to donate funds at the church’s website online, “you click the [Give] button and can make a one-time donation, and just mark it as ‘General Missions’ and we will know that it is for this drive, because this is our mission focus right now,” Harris explained.
According to Harris, Luling Elementary serves students from kindergarten to fifth grade with a handful of children as old as 13 to 15 years old that attend. As a result of the big span of ages at the school to account for, clothing sizes requested range from a 3T size all the way to youth 18 sizes.
Luling Elementary School administration has identified around half of the roughly 750 students at Luling Elementary need help, Harris said, which is how they arrived at their 400-student target. So far, Harris reports the drive is bringing in a steady flow of clothing, but they are currently shy of their goal.
“We are getting a good response – we’ve got probably around 100 [incomplete] uniform pieces right now,” Harris said of her uniform drive so far. “We would love to be able to show up [at the end of the drive] with 400 backpacks and at least 400 sets of uniforms – a full uniform [being] a top and a bottom, or a jumper and a top.”
Harris suggested local parents consider going through their children’s closets this month, and donate any uniforms their children no longer fit to the drive. Doing this yielded around 30 pieces of uniforms from Harris’ own three children, which she says she was then able to donate to the drive.
“The river divides us, but we’re five minutes away,” Harris said of her church’s East Bank location within St. Charles Parish. “We just want to bridge that gap and remember the kids who are in our backyard that could just use some extra assistance, and get them the best support that they can get so that they can learn and do well this school year.”
To learn more about the Luling Elementary uniform drive, or to donate, visit St. Charles Methodist Church’s website at stcharlesumc.com or on the church’s Facebook page.
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