SANGER – Young Sanger students are almost ready to return to school, but before they jump back behind their desks the city’s parks and recreation department will give them what they need to learn.
The City of Sanger Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a school supplies giveaway to Sanger Unified School District (SUSD) students this Friday at the Sanger Community Center. The annual event, Back-to-School Supply Giveaway, takes place Aug. 9 from 10 a.m. to noon
The donation period for Friday’s event ended Aug. 2. Donation centers were located at Sanger City Hall, Sanger Community Pool and the Sanger Senior Center. Parks and recreation Supervisor Joaquin Zamora said despite the fact the donation period has closed, donations will still be accepted.
“We’re not going to turn anyone away who wants to donate,” he said.
He said last year, the donation drive took in 400 backpacks. This year’s goal was set at 500. Zamora said it is too early to tally this year’s donations.
“We’ll know more come Wednesday (Aug. 7),” he said.
Zamora added there have been iterations of the event over the years.
“This has been an on-going event for some time now,” he said. “The event goes back decades. When I was the pool manager, I remember Sanger PD came out with the dunk tank and fried up franks for the community. Project Purple took over the grilling duties for a time as well. In recent years we have partnered with The Worship Center of Sanger, and this year Fresno County Boys and Girls Club is a sponsor as well.”
SUSD asked that the items donated be new, including notebooks, highlighters, crayons, color pencils, backpacks, pens and pencils. Monetary donations were also accepted.
