Old Town Mission, CFD hosts back-to-school supply drives for locals

Because it gave away more than 400 backpacks full of school supplies during its Operation: Back to School supply drive last year, Old Town Mission plans to have 600 available this year during its annual event on Saturday, July 25, from 9 a.m. to noon.

“Last year, we didn’t quite have enough backpacks,” Old Town Mission Executive Director Kellie Elmer said. “We kind of miscounted. So at the last minute, we called a few key groups like [Cottonwood-based] D&O Crane and a couple of them. They went out and just bought some more backpacks.”

One group that helps out every year is the Cottonwood Fire Department.

CFD Division Chief of Operations Troy Hoke said the crew on duty usually goes there, and it’s nice to see the kids get excited about the firefighters and their fire truck.

He said, when the crew gets there, Elmer will direct them where they’re needed and he might send over some other CFD staff if they are too shorthanded.

“Sometimes you just lose sight of what doing something nice, like giving out a backpack to somebody, what it can do for them,” Hoke said. “They’re getting ready to go to school, they need to get a backpack, just seeing the kids smile waiting for that one backpack, whatever might be the cool thing that year, they could be looking for the big movie release like Mario Bros. … or Roblox.”

Elmer said the drive is for local families, not just Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District. If the student comes from anywhere in the Verde Valley or Sedona, OTM tries to help.

Following the event, Old Town Mission corresponds with local school districts to see what leftover supplies they may need.

Elmer said Old Town Mission usually gives out between 200 to 300 backpacks after the event concludes, and the drive has been growing since she started in 2012.

Other remaining supplies are placed in the kid’s shop at its food pantry location, located at 116 E. Pinal St. in Cottonwood.

“We always have backpacks and school supplies stocked in there, so parents can come in,” Elmer said.

Operation: Back to School

At the food pantry and resource center, starting at 9 a.m. and going to noon, kids can choose a free backpack and go through the lines, picking out supplies they need, including paper, pencils, erasures, rulers and others.

“A lot of the things that we’re usually running short on are the high school supplies,” Elmer said. “So grid paper, highlighters, … because everyone’s like, ‘oh, crayons and rulers,’ but it’s the older supplies that we seem to not get as much donations.”

Contact Elmer at kellie@oldtownmission.org to donate.

“We do encourage people to donate financially,” she said. “That way, we order in bulk. … But we do collect lots of different supplies. We have barrels set up at a couple different banks in the local area.”

Included with each backpack this year will be a breakfast food bag.

“It’s the theory [of] breakfast for the entire week,” Elmer said. “So the first week of school, they’ll have enough items for breakfast every single day, and a snack after school.”

Cottonwood-Oak Creek and Mingus Union High School districts begin classes on Thursday, July 30. Camp Verde Unified School District begins on Monday, Aug. 3. Clarkdale-Jerome School District begins class on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Sedona-Oak Creek School District starts class on Thursday, Aug. 6.

Cottonwood Fire Department

CFD firefighter Chris Mathe said his wife’s a kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Preparatory, so he knows how hard it can be on the teachers, too.

It will take place on the same day, July 25, from 8 a.m. to noon.

“Our back to school drive that we put on as the Cottonwood Fire Department is right outside of Walmart, we set up a booth and basically we are just asking for any donations,” Mathe said. “It can be anything from cash that we would go inside and purchase supplies for the teachers and the kids or things such as … pencils, erasures, markers, crayons, tissues, hand sanitizer.”

He said CFD keeps in touch with COCSD, which is the district the drive is primarily for, to see if there are any supplies it needs in particular. Generally, though, CFD raises a good mix of different classroom supplies.

There will be baskets set up outside the store, and the firefighters will move everything to the firetruck.

“Once our firetruck is pretty full, that’s when we decide we’ve had a great turnout and we will cut it off there,” Mathe said.

Then, Mathe said they will take the supplies to COCSD’s teachers back-to-school assembly, where the teachers will be able to pick out what their classroom might need.