With the start of the new school year just around the corner, many local families are in the midst of their annual scramble to assemble the pencils, notebooks and other essentials for the children’s education.

On Saturday, the hot place for school supplies in Cass County wasn’t a retail store, but the Lewis Cass ISD Brookside Learning Center, as the United Way of Southwest Michigan hosted their annual School Supply Spectacular inside the school grounds. Around 30 volunteers help hand out nearly 800 backpacks filled with essential school supplies to Cass County children, said organizer Douglas Ferrall.

“We started handing out bags at 10 a.m.,” Ferrall said. “However, we had people lining up when we first got here at around 8 a.m.”

The United Way is the only service organization providing this type giveaway within Cass County every year, Ferrall said. The ISD were the originators of the event, but handed the reigns over to the United Way three years ago, Ferrall said.

“This is a wonderful fit for us and the ISD, since helps not only kids who are starting school but also students who are already enrolled across all the county’s districts,” said United Way President Anna Murphy.

Nearly 100 volunteers in total contributed labor to this year’s drive, whether it was unpacking boxes of supplies, packing the backpacks or helping to distribute on Saturday. Many of the volunteers were teachers, principals or custodians from local schools, and have been helping since the program was still handled through Lewis Cass, Ferrall said.

“They’re seeing the impact this event has with their own students, so they continue to come out every year to support it,” he said.

In addition to the supplies, families also received food from a Feeding America mobile food pantry, which distributed around 8,000 pounds of food that morning. Several other companies were present at the event as well, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Department of Human Services and Southwestern Michigan College, distributing information about the services they provide for low-income families and their children.

Backpacks that weren’t handed out on Saturday will go toward the United Way’s second Cass County giveaway, at the Marcellus United Methodist Church on Aug. 20. Any supplies left over from that will be given to homeless liaisons across county school districts, Ferrall said.

“They won’t go to waste, and they’ll stay here in Cass County,” he said.