By Suzanne Schmidt
Staff Writer
It is the first day of school and children step off the bus with their brand new backpacks full of supplies, but some children come to school empty handed.
Many times children can get supplies from the school, but to get the supplies they have to ask the teacher. Already the students around them have noticed there is something different about them and the damage has been done.
Anna Fulk, coordinator for Projects of Pasco, is on a mission to make sure children in Pasco County do not have to feel embarrassed or ashamed. Through her organization she supplies children in need with brand new backpacks filled with school supplies just in time for the school year.
“Bullying starts the moment children step onto school property or the bus,” Fulk said. “When they arrive and they have no backpack, that is when the bullying starts. It is very degrading for children to go to school without anything at all. They get teased that they don’t even have a nickel to buy a pencil.”
In order to indentify students needing help, she sends out thousands of applications to schools in Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, Zephyrhills, Dade City, Lacoochee and San Antonio.
It costs money to print these applications and they have to be done soon. For $600, West Gate Printing in Zephyrhills will print 3,000 applications.
“I am praying right now to get the money for the applications,” Fulk said. “These applications go to all the schools for the children to take home to their parents. The parents fill them out and the students bring them back in. We use these to know who qualifies for the supplies. I have to get them in and back before school ends for the summer.”
Fulk will start collecting school supplies in June. She keeps collecting until almost the last day possible right before school.
“It creates a sense of pride when these children can go to school with everything they need to get an education,” Fulk said. “I don’t get all the stuff the teachers want like the Kleenex and paper towels. I only get things that will help with their education like paper, pens, pencils, glue, scissors, rulers and markers.”
Every year the amount of children in need increases.
“The organization helped 196 children in August 2007,” Fulk said. “In August 2008, we helped 1,150 children. Last year, we helped 1,396 children. Every year the need increases, but the money does not.”
The most money she has been able to raise is $7,000. Currently she only has $120. Even though Fulk buys all her supplies on sale, she is still struggling to get enough supplies for the children.
