Community steps up to help kids

RAPID CITY – Officials reported a tremendous turnout for the annual ‘Fill a Patrol Car with School Supplies’ event at local Walmart stores on Friday, with five carloads of supplies donated. They also collected nearly $1,000 in cash donations to purchase more supplies. Event organizers hailed this third consecutive effort as a great success, expressing gratitude to all donors, Walmart managers, and staff.

The Rapid City Police Department’s Community Engagement Team hosted the event in partnership with Walmart and Cody Two Bulls, a Central High School student who will be a junior this fall.

On his Facebook/Meta page, Two Bulls said he started this Community Service Project – Backpacks and Baseball last year when he was a sophomore. The back-to-school supply drive aims to benefit children from the Pine Ridge Reservation by providing much-needed supplies.

Rapid City Police donated their time and cars to collect donations from patrons coming in and out of both Walmart stores, on North Lacrosse and Stumer Road, on Saturday from 1pm to 7pm.

Residents Robin and James Halterman stopped by specifically to make a donation. They told Native Sun News Today that they wanted to help the older kids. “So many of the little kids get so much because they’re little and cute,” said Robin, “but the older kids need stuff too, so we wanted to do something for them.” She said this was the first time they had heard about it, and they had heard it on the news the night before. “I haven’t been to Walmart in forever, but I wanted to do this for the schools and for the kids.”

In a post from May, as the school year was just coming to a close, Cody was already thinking about the next school year, saying he wanted to collect more this year than last year. He said last year, in a much shorter amount of time, he collected over 190 backpacks filled with school supplies which he was able to give to fellow students on the reservation. At Christmas, he was able to help provide Christmas gifts to more than 50 families, with the help of his cross-country team at Central and toy donations from individuals and organizations. He said they gave out more than 400 baskets at Easter to kids in his hometown of Oglala, with the help of the Easter Bunny. He said they were filled with eggs and candy. They were also able to send a donation to Red Shirt for their Easter Egg hunt.

So, he started an online registry at Walmart where he found the cheapest supplies. He said backpacks and notebooks go first and can be harder to find the closer the school starting date.

“This is for the kids who don’t have a backpack or even a pencil,” said Cody about his motivation to start a school supply drive. “I used to be that kid all the time as well. I would ask my teacher every day for a pencil. Eventually, she would give me two to use for the week. When I transferred here to Rapid it was the same thing. I didn’t know any of the kids. I got to know the teacher and we learned how we could be partners – how I could be a good student, and she could teach me my lessons.”

Mayor Jason Salamun honored Cody with a mayoral certificate, recognizing his dedication, contribution to the community, and leadership initiative.

There was a lot of activity online as Cody actively used his social media on Facebook/Meta to update and thank donors, including officers from the Rapid City Police Department and their families, for their support. The RCPD also encouraged donations on their page. Locals encouraged Cody and thanked him.  Scheels highlighted the effort with a comment as well.

Miriam Iams the Rapid City Police Youth Coordinator for Community Engagement, Evelyn Vinson Administrative Assistant for the RCPD Community Engagement Team and Joe Polaski who is an RCPD police officer and also works on the Community Engagement Team were collecting donations at the Stumer Road Walmart. Miriam said this was her first year being involved in the event. “I’m excited to be a part of it.”

It was a long day. The event officially ended at 7pm but a Facebook/Meta post from family said that they had stayed up into the wee hours  on Saturday organizing supplies and filling backpacks.

 “Through the power of collaboration with a variety of community partners, the RCPD has made great strides toward improving our community in a diverse number of ways,” says Chief of Police Don Hedrick in a news release. “I am so thankful to live and serve in a community that puts in so much effort to support those in need. This community’s generosity is the reason this school supply drive has been successful in years past, and I’m optimistic that the community will back this year’s drive in a similar fashion.”

The need for school supplies is ongoing. Suggested school supplies for donation include backpacks, color pencils, crayons, pencil cases, pens, pencils, folders, three-ring binders, paper, notebooks, headphones, glue sticks, dry erase or regular markers, scissors and tissue boxes.

For more information on Cody and the Backpacks & Baseball effort, visit Backpacks & Baseball | Rapid City SD | Facebook .  

(Contact Marnie Cook at cookm8715@gmail.com)

 

The post Community steps up to help kids first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source