KENNEWICK, Wash. – The start of the school year is right around the corner, but before that first bell rings, families rush to gather supplies for the new school year. According to a report by the National Retail Federation, many families are expected to spend the second-highest amount of money on school supplies ever.
The report says the average household will spend around $875 on supplies before the first bell of the school year rings. Joe Thornton, the founder of the Big Bro Joe Foundation, knows what it’s like to buy school supplies. As a father, he says he and partners from around the community want to help out families in the community.
“The Big Bro Joe Back to School Block Party is just an event to hand out free school supplies for young kids,” Thornton said. “We are doing that because we wanted to give back. We know that things sometimes get a little hard. We know the hustle and bustle of finding school supplies for their kids this year.”
Thornton says he will be giving out school supplies and offering free haircuts. He also says there will be live music and bouncy houses; everyone is invited. Thornton tells me there weren’t any school supply drives like this when he was a kid and wishes there were.
The Big Bro Joe Block party will be held on Sunday, August 16, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Big Bro Joe Youth Center in Kennewick. The first 150 kids will receive a free backpack.
Families aren’t the only ones needing school supplies; teachers are busy getting supplies to prepare their classrooms.
Andrew Burt is an eighth-grade teacher in the Tri-Cities. He tells me the school he works for gives him a certain amount to buy supplies for his classroom. His biggest problem is dealing with inflation and trying to make that dollar stretch.
“Maybe we want our kids to use binders,” said Burt. “We might not have enough money to allocate towards those binders. I even went to Walmart the other day to try to see how much I could get for just, you know, one of my period’s class worth. And it was like 50, 60 bucks.”
Burt said that as a teacher, the cost of décor and poster paper around his classroom for his students to use in class is also on the rise. He said each classroom has a budget for what supplies they can buy.
Burt tells me a thing the school district does for families helps out by providing funds for students to buy the basics like pencils and folders.
