The team from Paying It Forward Wollongong are at it again.
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This time they’re helping Illawarra parents get their children school ready.
As a result they will hold their annual School Stationery Packs event on Sunday to allow parents to come along and collect much needed school stationery such as backpacks, lunch boxes, pens, rulers and exercise books for free.
Paying It Forward Wollongong board vice-president Janet Hoppo said this year’s event was slightly different from previous years.
“Usually we make school stationery packs up and hand out a backpack with a lunch box and drink bottle as well as other stuff. But this year we are actually going to get people to bring in their school list and we will try to fill everything or as much as possible from what we’ve been gifted,” Mrs Hoppo said.
The School Stationery Packs event will be held at 10 St Cloud Crescent, Lake Heights on Sunday from 10am to 1pm.
People will also be able to collect packs from January 22 to 25 at times to be agreed on with organisers.
“We’ve asked them to bring their school supplies list,” she said.
“We will have everything laid out on the table and we will try and fill their list as well as we can.
“I’m guessing we will do at least 100 school stationery packs.”
Mrs Hoppo said it was very fulfilling to be able to help those doing it tough.
“But our group isn’t just aimed at people on benefits, our group is also aimed at people who fall between the cracks ...you know people who don’t qualify for government assistance but are still struggling,” she said.
The School Stationery Packs campaign comes just over a month after Paying It Forward Wollongong did its annual Christmas Toy Hampers campaign.
“Our next campaign will be our annual ‘winter comfort care packs’. This is targeted at the homeless and we collect sleeping bags, tarps, socks, bags of dignity and yoga mats,” Mrs Hoppo said.
“We also supply ‘pantry packs’ all year round as needed and are constantly collecting for pantry items.”