'To help our community': Shoppers help stuff a bus with school supplies
Sue Almeida, left, Jessica Couto and Ron Oliveira encouraged shoppers to buy and donate school supplies. Photos by Abby Van Selous
Bags of notebooks and folders.
Sue Almeida loads supplies into the bus.
Bags of writing utensils.
A woman donates school supplies.
Backpacks were a common donation.
Cleaning supplies donated.
Two people load a cartful of supplies into the school bus outside of Walmart.
Sue Almeida, left, Jessica Couto and Ron Oliveira encouraged shoppers to buy and donate school supplies. Photos by Abby Van Selous
Bags of notebooks and folders.
Sue Almeida loads supplies into the bus.
Bags of writing utensils.
A woman donates school supplies.
Backpacks were a common donation.
Cleaning supplies donated.
Two people load a cartful of supplies into the school bus outside of Walmart.
As shoppers bustled into the State Road Walmart, RE/MAX Vantage employees stood near a school bus, waving signs and handing out flyers to encourage them to purchase and donate school supplies.
RE/MAX Vantage has been raising money and gathering school supplies to donate to students and teachers for the past 10 years, but this is the first time they fashioned it as a “stuff-the-bus” drive.
Melisa Gagne, the vice president of RE/MAX Vantage, said the purpose of the drive is to “help our community.”
“This day restores my faith in humanity,” she said. “With everything going on in the world today, politics aside and everything aside, this is what it’s all about.”
Two hours into the event, just about every seat in the school bus was filled with school supplies, ranging from backpacks and notebooks to tissues and Lysol wipes.
“We have managed to fill this entire school bus, like an actual real size school bus,” Gagne said.
“There have been such incredible people coming out, whether they’re coming up with one notebook or two bags or one bag, every little bit has helped,” she said.
The list of requested school supplies included items such as backpacks, crayons, notebooks, pencil boxes, hand sanitizer and folders.
“We reach out to a lot of teachers, and we reach out to a lot of people that are in the system, and we actually found certain things that we were given feedback on that we didn’t even think of,” Gagne said.
This included supplies like tissues, which Gagne said hadn’t previously occurred to her because she assumed they would be something that the schools supply.
“We’re asking, we’re listening to the people that are actually in the school systems and working in the school systems,” she said.
Gagne noted that the stuff-the-bus is designed to support the teaching staff, in addition to students.
“What we’re doing is not only for the people in the community, but we’re also giving it to teachers because … they are just amazing people and angels on Earth,” she said.
Some of the supplies gathered and donated will be given directly to teachers to not only stock their classrooms but also so that they can be given to students who might not have them.
“[Teachers] are the ones that are going to know when the kids come into their classrooms,” Gagne said. “They know the students that maybe can’t afford, or are maybe too embarrassed to come.”
She added, “We want to make sure that, ‘Hey, you don’t have to come to us’ and we’re just no questions asked.”
The supplies donated are available to all kids and teachers, no matter their school district or where they live.
“If you need something, please feel free to come by,” Gagne said.
Supplies will be available for pick up at the RE/MAX Vantage office, located at 77 State Rd.
Gagne welcomed people to contact the office to see what supplies they have available, adding that even if they’re out, they will go out and get the supplies for the caller.
“We want people to know that we’re here, and we truly mean it,” she said.
