Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Over 1,000 students were able to get a head start to the school year Wednesday at Combined Community Services’ annual Tools for School.
Kiira Churchill, executive director of CCS, said it was the 30th year for the Tools for School event. Wednesday was the third year it was hosted at Lakeview Middle School with it previously held at the Kosciusko County Fairgrounds. The switch between locations was due to Warsaw Community Schools’ cosmetology program being housed at Lakeview.
“Tools for School is a free community resource for any student in Kosciusko County, kindergarten through 12th grade,” Churchill said. “And the whole purpose and this heart behind this mission and this program is to send kids prepared for school. We do not want a child sitting in class thinking, ‘Oh, no. I don’t have these things ready for school.’ We want them to be able to sit in class, have a full-sized bookbag, have their school supplies and feel prepared and ready for school.”
Churchill said CCS has slowly added to Tools for School over the years and there’s always something new.
This year, Churchill said students were able to get school supplies based on their grade level. There were shoes donated by Changing Footprints out of Fort Wayne for students to get new shoes. Students were able to get free haircuts through WCS’ cosmetology program. Adding the cosmetology program into the event was done a few years ago.
Community nonprofits like Big Brothers Big Sisters were able to set up booths to provide families with information.
During Tools for School, area school corporations were invited to attend so students could register for school if they hadn’t already.
WCS Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert said WCS is grateful for CCS. Tools for School continues to grow and providing a service to students to help make school a better place.
Over 150 students were able to register for WCS during Tools for School.
Ashlie Schlemmer, director of communications and public relations and grant manager for Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, said it’s so exciting to have a great event to have families come and get the supplies they need, especially if there’s multiple children in the same family.
“But honestly, I just want to be here to support families that are coming to Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation to help them get registered,” she said. As of about halfway through the event, she said no TVSC had been registered.
She said having a representative from the school corporation shows that “we are a combined community,” noting there are students living in Warsaw that go to Valley and vice versa.
Churchill said the event, while it may not be able to provide everything for students to go back to school, it does provide a big chunk of it so parents are able to budget other items.
“But the other side of it is, we’re bringing all of these resources from the county and we’re working together for one purpose, which I think is beautiful,” Churchill said.
Churchill said she wasn’t sure of how many students Tools for School saw about halfway through the event but estimated they saw over 1,000 students at that point. She said, normally, Tools for School sees between 1,500 and 1,800 students throughout the event. The additional resources that are left over after Tools for Schools, elementary schools are invited to pick up those resources in case they were unable to attend the event Wednesday.
