The West Virginia Department of Education is leading a multi-county effort to help schools affected by the June flooding in West Virginia to replenish their lost supplies and provide needed materials for students. A Back-to-School Supply Drive will take place July 17-30 with collection sites operating throughout Kanawha County.
“Thousands of our children experienced the devastation of the recent catastrophic floods in our beloved state,” said State Board of Education member Beverly Kingery. “These children will soon return to school and many will return with few belongings and still much uncertainty in their lives.”
The goal of the drive is to provide each individual student in the severely affected flood areas with a book bag of school supplies. Organizers have set a goal of collecting 8,000 book bags with supplies such as pencils, ink pens and rulers.
A list of needed school supplies, grouped by grade level, is available on the West Virginia Department of Education website.
Collection sites in Kanawha County include the following locations during business hours:
- Capitol Market, 800 Smith St., Charleston, outside center court
- Charleston Town Center Mall, 3000 Charleston Town Center, Charleston, center court
- Courtyard Marriott, 100 Kanawha Blvd. E., Charleston
- South Charleston Public Library, 312 4th Ave., South Charleston
- Walmart, 2700 Mountaineer Blvd., South Charleston
- West Virginia State University, 5000 Fairlawn Ave., Institute, Curtis House
- WOWK 13 News Studio, 350 Quarrier Street, Charleston
After items are collected, they will be packaged by volunteers and distributed to affected schools as the new academic year begins.
More than 20 people died and thousands of homes, schools and businesses were damaged as a result of flash flooding that struck multiple counties in West Virginia in June. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has made federal disaster declarations for a number of counties.
The West Virginia Department of Education is partnering with Read Aloud West Virginia and West Virginia State University Extension Service to collect donations in Kanawha County.
For further details and a statewide list of collection sites, visit the West Virginia Department of Education website.