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More financially strapped families depend on the popular events

By Chris Levister –

Early Saturday, August 14 Janice Williams loaded her three kids Olivia, Jayden and Mya into the family van and drove from Victorville to Secombe Lake Park in San Bernardino in hopes of getting backpacks loaded with school supplies. There was one problem. The Williams had the wrong date and wrong location. The event sponsored by the Rock Church usually held in Secombe Park in late August has been moved to September 25 at Perris Hill Park in San Bernardino.

Ms. Williams managed to laugh about the scheduling error but in reality she admits finding the money to buy school supplies this year is no laughing matter.

“I lost my job last month. I’m desperate,” she said. “Hopefully the kids can get by with borrowed supplies until I get an unemployment check.”

Thousands of Inland children are heading back to class, which means the demand for school supplies is up in this downturn economy. The demand was evident in Fontana at a Christian Fellowship Saturday when nearly 1,500 people showed up in hopes of getting one of 200 backpacks filled with school supplies.

With more people out of work, more parents are turning to church school supply giveaways. Single parent Bryan Greene has 4 school children He said buying school supplies this year is particularly difficult.

One dozen pencils, a pair of scissors, two boxes of 16-count crayons and the list goes on. Last week Greene a mechanic took a school supply list to a neighborhood discount store to see how much money could be saved on a budget.

Generic backpacks, four dozen pencils, four spiral notebooks; eight jumbo glue sticks; four boxes of Crayola crayons and four pairs of blunt-end Fiskar scissors.

At the checkout he paid $94.08 without tax. “That’s a week’s worth of meals,” he said.

And that doesn’t include clothes, shoes, health exams or haircuts, so people like Greene rely on church school supply giveaways to help cut some costs.

“Thank God for the churches, because I’ve already spent $220.00 on school clothes and shoes. I just feel overwhelmed. So much so that Greene created his own list of church giveaways. “Even if we get to the big giveaways early, there’s no guarantee the kids will get supplies” he says with a nervous grin.

The annual Rock Church “Back to School Bash” is set for the 25th of September at Perris Hill Park in San Bernardino. Last year Janice Williams’ family braved a massive crowd of more than 2,500 people. “We left with three backpacks full of school supplies, sneakers, jackets and toiletries, said Ms. Williams. “The kids got haircuts and school health exams. That saved me around $275. It was a real blessing. I just hope those blessings keep coming,” she said.