Pictured from left to right are: City Hall employee Hilda Edwards, Vidrine Elementary Principal Sherral Tezeno, Evangeline Central School Principal Dexter Brown, and Ville Platte Elementary Principal Sally Moreaux standing in front of a school bus parked at the Ville Platte City Hall with school supplies in hand. (Gazette photo by Elizabeth West)
By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor
For the third year in a row the City of Ville Platte is helping the St. Landry-Evangeline United Way Stuff the Bus.
The Stuff the Bus drive aims to help with the purchase of school supplies that will be distributed at the public schools in Evangeline Parish. The purpose of the drive is to help make the preparations for a new school year a little less stressful on students, teachers, and principals alike, and for the last two years, it has proven to do just that.
“The supplies we have received from Stuff the Bus in the previous years have been critical when it comes to helping our students put a visual image to a mental concept,” said Vidrine Elementary School Principal Sherral Tezeno.
Tezeno’s school hasn’t been the only one to reap the benefits of the Stuff the Bus collection of school supplies.
For Ville Platte Elementary Principal Sally Moreaux, these “supplies come in handy” because VPE has a school poverty status of 98 percent.
Moreaux said, “We have parents that can’t afford all of the supplies that their children need, and so those students have to come to school without. Some students come without anything.”
For the third year though, Moreaux will be able to provide these students with the supplies they need, and it’s all thanks to the Stuff the Bus drive.
“We look forward to Stuff the Bus,” said Moreaux. “Because we have seen how much of a difference having these supplies makes when it comes to educating our students.”
Much like Moreaux, Evangeline Central School Principal Dexter Brown is also faced each year with students that have no school supplies. And, lucky for him, there were enough supplies donated the last two years for his school to receive a batch.
Brown said, “A lot of our kids come from single parent homes with low incomes. Some of them have mothers working multiple jobs just trying to get by, so when our school receives supplies from Stuff the Bus we are able to give those to our students that don’t have anything. Last year, after we gave some of the supplies out we received calls from parents thanking us for doing that. “
The only way to continue providing a helping hand to the students, teachers, and principals across the parish that have experienced the benefit of having the Stuff the Bus drive is by donating supplies, which are dropped off to the schools by Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine.
Stuff the Bus donations will be accepted at the Ville Platte City Hall from Monday, August 1st, to Friday, August 5th, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Supplies that will be accepted for this year’s drive are: backpacks, folders, pencils/pens, crayons, markers, protractors, pencil sharpeners, calculators, paper towels, hand sanitizer, copy paper, Kleenex, stickers, tape, notebooks, glue sticks, rulers, three ring binders, tape, arts and crafts supplies, school uniforms, and also money or Walmart gift cards.