By Stephen Smoot
As July winds down and recedes into memory, thoughts of the coming school year grow increasingly prominent in the minds of students, families, faculty, and administrators.
Some families, however, struggle with the basics of preparing for school. This means that helpful non profits, such as MountainHeart Community Services, also mobilize to provide support when and where needed. They will hold a “Back-to-School Bash” for Brandywine area students and families.
“The main point,” said Peggy Rittenhouse, community outreach and resource specialist for the organization, “is in trying to get resources to the families in Brandywine.”
The Elkins-based MountainHeart Community Services targeted Brandywine because of its distance from towns with diversified shopping. Families, Rittenhouse says, “are so far from Franklin. Most resources are in Franklin.”
Franklin lies 20 minutes from Brandywine and almost a half an hour from Sugar Grove. Harrisonburg, Virginia, is almost twice as far away. Families with tight budgets that don’t allow much extra for gasoline — or those lacking a vehicle at all — will find it difficult to get to where they need to go to obtain the supplies all kids need to start school.
Additionally, some families may lack the means to get everything the students need.
Rittenhouse mentioned that the Communities In Schools liaison to Brandywine Elementary School reported that in the past, “a lot of children in Brandywine do not get resources at back to school events.” She added that, until now, “Brandywine is one of the areas I had not been able to get into.”
For her, this mission is personal. “I grew up in Pocahontas County on Back Mountain with my grandmother,” Rittenhouse remembered, going on to say, “She wasn’t able to take me to events” because she “needed someone else to drive.”
Indeed, many of the families who benefit most from such events are grandparents who, for a variety of reasons, have assumed the primary role in raising their grandchildren. Studies indicate that 52 percent of West Virginia grandparents play a major or primary role in raising grandchildren.
Whether the students will attend Brandywine Elementary School or Pendleton County Middle/High School, the event is there to help with items such as book bags, paper, or other “supplies they can’t otherwise get.”
Local partners have teamed up with MountainHeart to produce as big of an impact as is possible. “I’m working a lot with the Family Support Center,” Rittenhouse stated, sharing that Edna Mullenax, the FSC executive director, is heavily engaged with the event as well. The South Fork Volunteer Fire Department will also be on hand, as will the Pendleton County Library to help students obtain library cards.
The “Back-to-School Bash” will take place between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Aug. 17 at Brandywine Elementary School.
