Students eat breakfast and color in a second-grade classroom before school starts at Klatt Elementary School in Anchorage in August 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN archive)
Before school starts next month, Anchorage School District families can get free school supplies at an event July 31, and free clothes at another event the next day.
District employees, volunteers and vendors will distribute backpacks full of pencils, paper and notebooks to students at Begich Middle School, 7440 Creekside Center Drive, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday.
Community donations help support the cost of the supplies, and the district handed out more than 3,500 backpacks full of school supplies at the event last year. The district will run four buses to transport attendees ages 5 and older to the event, now in its 25th year. Buses will depart from the Mountain View, Airport Heights, Fairview and Taku neighborhoods, with stops at over a dozen schools.
“As families continue to navigate rising costs for everyday essentials, events like this help ease the financial burden of preparing children for a successful school year,“ district spokesperson Corey Allen Young said in an email.
A thousand families have already pre-registered. That option is no longer available, but families can still show up on the day of the event to receive a free backpack full of supplies. Families can also get their children’s hearing and vision screened, and receive updated immunizations.
Donors can drop off school supplies at the ASD Education Center, 5530 E. Northern Lights Blvd., until Tuesday.
U.S. families continue to face challenges related to affordability and inflation as teachers are spending more on classroom supplies not covered by their schools and families are spending less on supplies for their children.
More than $11 million has been donated to Alaska classrooms through the classroom crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose, and of the nearly 16,000 projects funded across Alaska, over half are from the Anchorage School District.
Anchorage Cops for Community will host the 12th annual Clothesline Project, an event that gives families a chance to pick up free school clothes, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Clark Middle School, 150 Bragaw St.
New and gently used clothing can be donated at all Kaladi Brothers locations in Anchorage; Anchorage Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at 113 W. Northern Lights Blvd.; and at the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association at 4001 Denali St., Suite B.
