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Boys & Girls Club Members Need Back-To-School Help

DENVER (CBS4) Families are starting to think about back-to-school shopping and some estimates indicate that they could spend as much as $639 per child on school supplies.

"Times have changed significantly over the last couple of decades. It's not about a couple of folders and crayons anymore. Now it's these long elaborate school lists being required of kids as young as first grade," said Erin Porteous, Vice President of Development for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.

Many of the kids and families that belong to the Boys & Girls Clubs have a hard time affording some of the lists that are required of them.

"For the kids and families that we serve, going back to school can be a time of stress and anxiety as they know the long lists of school supplies that they need to buy and the costs that are associated with that," Porteous added.

The Clubs are hosting a Stuff the Bus School Supply Drive on Saturday, July 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"Our goal is to stuff the bus with school supplies for elementary and middle school kids. That can be art supplies, like crayons and markers, but it's also the necessities like calculators and notebooks and pencils and pens," Porteous told CBS4.

Erin
(Credit: CBS)

There will be Boys & Girls Clubs buses at various Walmart and Sam's Club stores throughout the Metro Area. Staff and kids will be accepting donations of new school supplies in an effort to fill up the buses.  Here's a list of participating locations:

Walmart Stores:

--Highlands Ranch Store, 6675 Business Center Dr | Highlands Ranch, CO 80130

--Littleton Store, 13420 W Coal Mine Ave | Littleton, CO 80127

--Smokey Hill/Aurora Store, 6101 S Aurora Pkwy | Aurora, CO 80016

--Thornton Store, 9901 Grant St | Thornton, CO 80229

Sam's Clubs:

--Lone Tree Sam's Club, 7817 Park Meadows Dr | Lone Tree, CO 80124

--Arvada Sam's Club, 7370 W 52nd Ave | Arvada, CO 80002

--Smokey Hill Sam's Club, 6201 S Aurora Pkwy | Aurora, CO 80016

--Thornton Sam's Club, 9601 Grant St | Thornton, CO 80229

"We're encouraging families to pick up an extra item when they're out shopping for their own kids…first grade through high school... pick up an extra for the Boys and Girls Club kids," said Porteous.

Every day, the Boys & Girls Clubs serve 2,000 children ages 8 to 18. The clubs are located in some of the city's poorest neighbors and offer a safe place for kids to go and do their homework, play sports, hang out with friends, do arts & crafts and get a hot meal.

"What we know Boys and Girls Club does is it helps with the ABC's. Our kids do better academically and in attendance. They have better behavior, and their course work and test scores are stronger," Porteous explained.

So when you make a donation of pens, pencils, markers and backpacks, you're helping to equip kids for a great year ahead of them.

RESOURCE: Stuff the Bus Supply Drive Wish List

If you can't make a donation of school supplies on Saturday, July 26, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver is always accepting cash donations through the Donation Page on its website.

"With the monetary donations that we receive from the Stuff the Bus Campaign, we'll use that money to help purchase uniforms," said Porteous.

The goal for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver is to make sure that each of its members has the materials and supplies he or she needs to succeed in the new school year.

- Written for CBSDenver.com by Special Projects Producer Libby Smith

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