EAST ALTON - East Alton is known as a community that cares about its children. Another prime example occurred on Saturday with East Alton’s Annual Back To School event.
The village took 200 children for the special event to provide the following:
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Haircut, three sets of new clothing, hygiene products, backpacks with grade-appropriate supplies, lunch, tennis shoes and socks, underwear garments, coats and jackets and laundry soap.
“We have many organizations and businesses that came together to help supply and support the needs for these children, co-chair Robin Carlton said with the other co-chair Suzette Cranmer. “We are supported and helped by the Village of East Alton Mayor Darren Carlton and the village trustees. This was our fifth year of organizing this free event for our community.”
“It takes an average of 80 volunteers, 30 of those are personal shoppers made up of a lot of East Alton teachers. We are blessed and have a great rapport with the East Alton School District.
“Every year, we continue to make changes to improve our Back To School event. This year we topped it! We always in years past, gave away three sets of gently clean and used clothes, This year we worked very hard in the last 12 months gathering brand new clothing. So this year we are proud to say each child received three new sets of clothing.
Robin Carlton said the group's main goal is to give these children the opportunity to feel good about going back to school.
"We have erased a lot of the financial expenses of returning to school for many of these families," she said. "Once the shopping is done the children and their families enjoyed the bounce house, snow cones, cotton candy, and lunch outside the East Alton Recreation Department. It was a great rewarding day for all.”
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