Catholic Charities gives school supplies to 2,060 children

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

More than 2,000 area children will start school possibly with a bounce to their steps and a boost of confidence, thanks to the brand-new school supplies they received courtesy of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud.

CC’s Back to School program, thanks to individual, business and church contributions, gave school supplies to 2,060 children in recent weeks. Each child received items on a list required by his or her school. Items included paper notebooks, pencils, crayons, colored folders, backpacks when there is enough, markers, scissors and other useful items.

Trina Dietz, a Sartell resident and CC’s communications coordinator, said she still receives calls from people wanting to donate to the program, although the collection deadline, Aug. 27, has passed. She recommends people store school-supply items to give to CC during next year’s Back to School distribution.

Children who received supplies are those in schools in Sartell, Sauk Rapids, St. Cloud, St. Augusta and Waite Park.

Dietz praised the many volunteers who gave of their time to distribute the supplies. The volunteers are employees of Rasmussen Business College, Capital One 360 and St. Cloud Machinery.

“Every kid is so proud to bring new school supplies to school,” Dietz said.

She still fondly recalls a time two years ago when a young girl with big bouncy curly hair stood before a volunteer who was holding an inexpensive plain folder in one hand and a fancier one in her other hand. The volunteer said to the girl, “How about this one?,” holding up the fancier one with white-green-and-pink stripes on it.

As she accepted the folder, the girl stood there utterly speechless, so glad to have such a snazzy folder.

“Little things can make a huge difference to kids,” Dietz noted.

There seems to be more needs every year for the Back to School program.

“We’re not sure why,” Dietz said. “We saw the number of kids in need grow during the recession. But as the recession got better, the number of kids in need didn’t drop. That’s true of the food shelf, clothing and the Back to School program. We just view it as a new level of need.”

Many of the children in need are children of single mothers, Dietz noted. There is a huge variety of circumstances that causes such needs. In one case, a parent was suffering from cancer, and all the resources went to that, leaving the children with next to nothing.

“You just never know what could be going on in someone’s life,” Dietz said, adding she has seen employees in stores who need to come to CC for one reason or another.

Dietz is moved by the thank-you notes she gets from parents and from children.

She has come to know so many people through CC programs, and she is thrilled when she learns of the ones who are back on their feet and doing just fine.