By Tom Blakey
Alameda Church of Christ will host its fifth annual Back To School Roundup 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 8, with about 1,500 people expected to attend the community fair.
"This year we're planning to give away 700 backpacks full of school supplies," said Deacon John Helton.
Helton heads the church's Streams of Water Ministry, which sponsors the event. The Back to School Roundup includes an information fair, with the participation of city and social service agencies.
"Several agencies will come in, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Cleveland County, YMCA, 4-H and the police and fire departments," Helton said. "We'll probably have several more, but they haven't yet confirmed."
The agencies will share information about social service programs in Cleveland County, the police will offer to record children's fingerprints as part of a safety program and the fire department will have fire trucks on display.
"The children love to see the fire trucks," he said.
Other activities will include moon bounces, face painting and a magician, J.P. Wilson. "He's been there four of the five years and the kids just love him," Helton said.
The event includes lunch for everyone who attends.
"Everything is free," Helton said.
The event begins with registration at 9 a.m. "It's basically first come, first serve," he said.
The Wednesday before the Roundup event about 100 church volunteered to come and load the backpacks with school supplies, including pencils, paper, glue, rulers, three-ring binders, loose leaf paper, spiral notebooks, boxes of crayons, colored pencils, pens, pencils and more. "
Helton said instead of the chruch's traditional worship service that evening, the congregation began about 4 p.m. and establish an assembly line to pack the school supplies.
Helton said the Back to School Roundup is something the church outreach committee came up with about six years ago.
"It's been a success every year and seems to grow and grow," he said. "With this economy, we're expecting even more people this year."
The church is at 801 E. Alameda St.
For more information, call Alameda Church of Christ at 321-0788 or e-mail JHelton@alameda-streams.org.
Tom Blakey
366-3540
tblakey@normantranscript.com
