The end of Summer means it’s time to focus on making sure kids have all the supplies they need for school. And we’ve had enough Back-to-School fun to last us for the year!

We did our annual backpack and supply handout to our families who signed up for help. We passed out 132 backpacks to kids from 42 families. The bulk of the handouts took place at Acts Community Downtown. We’re so thankful for our friends there, who graciously allowed us to use their space since it’s centralized for all our different complexes. They also hosted our backpack stuffing party, which included volunteers from Mission 2540, Amarillo Community Village, and More Church. We love partnering with our community!

Speaking of community, our refugee population at Cathy’s Point and the North Grand Villas is so large that in order to make sure all our families were helped, we partnered with Catholic Charities for their first ever Back to School Bash. They brought in lots of community members to provide different needed supplies, and 170 kids came through and filled up their backpacks with what they needed. This was a huge success and we plan on doing it again next year!

Of course, the fun didn’t stop there. Each year Hillside Church holds their annual Back-to-School Block Party and $5 shoe sale. We got to be a part of that event, passing out goodies and info about Mission 2540. So many of our families were able to go pick out new, name brand shoes to start the school year for just $5 per kid. And then Hillside donates the amount of many raised from the shoe sale to Mission 2540. It’s an awesome event we’re so grateful to be a part of.

Thanks to our partnership with the Heights Fellowship in Lubbock, we were able to hold our first ever End of Summer Block Parties at our two locations there – Madison Park and Cameron Court. They were able to hand out some school supplies, cook hot dogs, paint faces, play on bounce houses, and get to meet many new faces. We’re set up for some significant growth in Lubbock this fall!