School supply drive

PLAINS - The First Security Bank of Plains saw success in their second annual school supply drive during the month of August.

According to Kayla Revier, one of the event’s coordinators, they only had a few donors this year, but they got lots of supplies from them. She reported three bags of supplies were delivered each to the Plains and Hot Springs school districts.

The bank collected a little of everything needed in classrooms. They got donations of elastic book covers, notebooks, pencils, pens, markers, paper, folders and a variety of other items.

Revier noted August was a good time for the drive as it was right when back to school shopping was being done. As a result, people can buy extra supplies to donate or give any usable extras they find from last year.

“People graduate and if they no longer have a kid in the system, they can have stuff to donate,” said Revier.

While the drive is no longer going on, the bank will still accept donations and take them to the schools in the area. Since this is the second year for the supply drive, there are still not as many donors as they would like; Revier and the bank staff are confident of the event’s future, as more people get involved.

“We’re hoping the longer we do it, the more people will become aware and participate more,” she said.

The drive gathered school supplies to be donated to the Plains and Hot Springs schools for the start of the 2015-16 school year. The Thompson Falls branch of the First Security Bank also acted as a drop-off point for their own supply drive.

This drive was started by Margaret Smallwood, a Thompson Falls resident, last year to help provide things the schools may be short on.

“[The kids] don’t need to be distracted by what they do and don’t have on the first day of school,” she said.

The Thompson Falls and Noxon communities gave a great response to the call for supplies. They were able to collect donations of everything a school would need for the year as well as having high-quality shoes donated.

This is only the second year for the Thompson Falls supply drive, though Smallwood is confident for the future. She said they were mainly focused on the western part of the county, but it would be nice if it were to become a countywide event.

“It’s still very small, but I’m optimistic,” she said.

Donations collected by the Thompson Falls drive were delivered to the schools in Thompson Falls and Noxon on Friday. Smallwood noted they would continue collecting donations throughout the school year and people should feel free to contact her if they wanted to make a donation of supplies or write a check.