Brett Stelzer Book Bag Project in ninth year

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

On Sun­day, August 5, approx­i­mately 80 vol­un­teers rang­ing from stu­dent age though older adults joined forces at Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share’s Annual Brett’s Book Bag Stuff­ing at Con­dit Pres­by­ter­ian Church. In the church base­ment vol­un­teers stuffed stu­dent book bags with school sup­plies needed for the approach­ing school year as part of the Brett Stelzer Book Bag Project, a Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share Back-To-School Project that fur­nishes school sup­plies to Big Wal­nut fam­i­lies in need.

The Back To School Project has been in exis­tence for as long as Friends Who Share has been around. The Brett Stelzer Book Bag Project was started by Mark and Glo­ria Stelzer. The Stelz­ers are Genoa Town­ship res­i­dents who lost their son Brett to an acci­dent on Valentine’s Day, 2004. Brett would have been a mem­ber of the Big Wal­nut High School Class of 2007.

Each indi­vid­ual book bag was stuffed for a spe­cific stu­dent using that student’s school sup­ply require­ment list. Once the bags were stuffed with the nec­es­sary sup­plies, they were trans­ported to the Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share Store at 216 High Street, Sun­bury, where fam­i­lies in need that requested the bags pick them up.

“We are very thank­ful to have this many peo­ple give up their time on a Sun­day evening to make sure our Big Wal­nut stu­dents had stuffed book bags for their upcom­ing school year,” said Glo­ria Stelzer. “This was the ninth year we have been able to pro­vide Book Bags in Brett’s mem­ory to our Big Wal­nut Students.”

Stelzer said the Brett Stelzer Book Bag Project began with a gen­er­ous dona­tion from the par­ents of one of Brett’s friends, and con­tin­ues today because of freely offered dona­tions in Brett’s memory.

“We’re hope­ful the Book Bag Project will be able to con­tinue again next year and we hope our vol­un­teers will remain a part of this com­mu­nity out­reach that Con­dit Pres­by­ter­ian Church leads,” Stelzer said. “The need, unfor­tu­nately, remains strong in our com­mu­nity. We trust with the community’s con­tin­ued sup­port we can pro­vide our stu­dents with some assis­tance with school sup­plies and book bags for as long as the need exists. Sim­ple things that we often take for granted, can make a child smile.”

On-going con­tri­bu­tions for school sup­plies and the book bag pur­chase can be made in Brett’s mem­ory. Any­one wish­ing to donate to BWFWS in Brett’s mem­ory can send their check to: BWFWS, PO Box 424, Sun­bury, Ohio 43074 and ear­mark the check for pur­chas­ing bags and sup­plies in Brett’s Memory.

Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share is east­ern Delaware County’s all-volunteer grass-roots social ser­vice agency, pro­vid­ing a host of other ser­vices to Big Wal­nut area fam­i­lies through­out the year, includ­ing food assis­tance, cloth­ing, fur­ni­ture, kitchen appli­ances — any­thing needed in a household.

For assis­tance, to vol­un­teer, to donate needed items or to make a finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion to Friends Who Share projects, call 740–965-9596. Cash dona­tions may be sent to Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share, P.O. Box 424, Sun­bury, 43074.

Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share is on the Web at < http://www.bigwalnutfriendswhoshare.org/ >.

In keep­ing with the we take care of our own Friends Who Share phi­los­o­phy, through­out the year Big Wal­nut churches, schools and stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions, girl and boy scouts, Big Wal­nut area ser­vice orga­ni­za­tions, and indi­vid­ual donors and vol­un­teers all roll up their sleeves to help this unique com­mu­nity orga­ni­za­tion meet local need.

The Big Wal­nut Friends Who Share Store at 216 High Street, Sun­bury, is open to those in need from 9 until 11:30 a.m. on Wednes­day morn­ings, and from 6:30 until 8 p.m. dur­ing the evening on the sec­ond and fourth Tues­day of each month.

Posted by Gary Henery on Aug 15 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.