Family Center distributes school supplies

By COURTNEY LAMDIN | Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com

Just in time for the new school year, the Milton Family Community Center is again distributing school supplies to families in need.

This year, 75 backpacks were stuffed with school supplies like notebooks, binders, pencils, markers and scissors for children whose families registered for the assistance.

Charlotte Parot, family services coordinator at the Center, said the bags won’t contain every needed item, but they will help.

“We do the best we can to give everybody something,” she said.

The program was coordinated with the community service group Women with Purpose and with Learning Together, a work-readiness group that teaches young women to be self-sufficient.

Annette Mott-Newell, a member of Women with Purpose, coordinated the donations this year. As a single parent with one income, she has a vested interest in the project, she said.

“If it wasn’t for [The Family Center] helping out with the backpacks and school supplies that we do get from them, personally, [my children would] probably start without,” Mott-Newell said.

School supplies can be expensive, Parot said. Last year, the Center tallied the shopping list for kindergarteners. It was about $40.

A single backpack can cost that much, Mott-Newell said.

“With the supplies that [students] carry back and forth on a daily basis, you need a pretty hefty backpack, … which is something the Center helps out with,” she said.

Families that registered for the program can pick up the school supplies at the Milton Family Community Center on 23 Villemaire Lane.