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2024 Pack-The-Bus Event Results

Message of Hope

On July 20th, we held our first “Pack-The-Bus” event at Owen’s Field Parking Lot in Apollo, PA! It was a beautiful day outside which allowed us to really enjoy the weather with an awesome car show and games for the kids!

Let’s go over the results and see how everything turned out!

The Good

The awesome thing about this event is the fact that those who came were incredibly generous with their giving! We received so many school supplies. The inventory from the event includes:

  • Pencil Sharpeners: 27
  • Folders: 507
  • Highlighters: 148
  • Crayons: 184
  • Gluesticks: 271
  • Markers: 386
  • Pencil Boxes/Bags: 45
  • Erasers: 2283
  • Notebooks: 298
  • Pencils: 1992
  • Colored Pencils: 436
  • Pens: 282
  • Miscellaneous: 26 various items

The donations we received go so far in helping us reach our goal of giving every student a bag filled with school supplies! So, thank you everyone for coming out and giving!

The Challenges

Now, let’s talk about the difficulties we faced.

Challenge #1: Foot Traffic

Overall, the event had approximately 100 people attend (Which we are grateful for but honestly, we were hoping for a larger turn out). We canvased Apollo. We advertised via Facebook to nearly 2,000 local residents of western PA, we passed out 500 flyers, 250 push cards, and had the event listed on several group pages on social media, Craigslist, and KLOVE radio.

We really feel as though we did everything we could to get people there! But, give it a few more times, and I am sure we will gain more people attending the event.

Challenge #2: Engaging Local Churches

We reached out to many different churches in the area. Many of which weren’t interested in taking part in the event this year. This really contributed in the lack of turn out. The idea of the event is to not only give students bags, but to unite the local churches to accomplish a simple, singular goal.

Sadly, we were rejected more than accepted by local churches this year. But once again, we have high hope’s that next year we can get more churches interested in helping out their community via this event.

Challenge #3: Technical Difficulties

We had rented a PA system which didn’t work, so we had to rely upon a board members sound system from his car. Next year, we will check the PA system before the event to make sure it is functional!

Conclusion

Despite these challenges, God really did bless us with an awesome day. And for that, we are so grateful. Thank you to everyone who came and supported this event. Thank you to our donors and to the vendors. Without you guys, there would be no event at all!

Message of Hope