On August 4th, Sahuaro partnered with Secrist Middle School to run a “Stuff the Bus” event at the Walmart Supercenter on Golf Links and Houghton. The Stuff the Bus event was run by Sahuaro’s student equity and interventions counselor, Mr. Langford, and ran from 7 am-2 pm. 

The “Stuff the Bus” event was, “To help Sahuaro teachers with school supplies for both the classroom and the students,” Langford stated. Sahuaro is fully aware that not everyone can afford school supplies and many times teachers have to pay for supplies out of their own pocket, so this event helped both sides because those in need get supplies as well as the teachers. According to Mr. Langford, around $7,000 dollars worth of school supplies were received. “This was the second time Sahuaro has done the event, but the African American Studies Department has done it for several years,” Mr. Langford said.

There were teachers, admin, and students who volunteered their time to help with this event. Sahuaro had help with the event from others too, as the posters were made by elementary school students. Secrist Middle School made the fliers that had what school supplies Sahuaro and Secrist were looking for. “We were strictly outside, but we had a tent with water and bubbles for the kids. Many kids even wanted to bring the supplies on the bus for us.” There was a section of the bus for supplies going to Sahuaro and a section for supplies going to Secrist. “Some customers did not give us supplies, but gave money to the schools. The money was also divided in half between the schools.” Most of what was donated was crayons and notebooks.

At the  end of the event the supplies were loaded into cars and taken to the schools. “Once we got to Sahuaro, we asked the heads of each department to come down and get supplies. There was no limit on how many supplies could be grabbed since we received so much.” There are still many supplies remaining. If students are in need of supplies, they can talk to Mrs. Patty in the attendance office and get some of the supplies.