Oktibbeha County and Starkville residents received free school supplies and education at the Emerson Family Resource Center’s Back to School Bash on Saturday at the Sportsplex.
The Back to School Bash offered health screenings for vision, hearing, oral health, height and weight and blood pressure. In order for participants to receive free school supplies, they must have visited at least 40 of the 46 booths.
Emerson Family Resource Center Project CARE Program Manager Elmarie Carr Brooks said this event is important every year because people need to know what is available in their community. This provided a way to showcase the different organizations to the public.
“There is no need for children to not have all of the basic necessities because Starkville has it right here in this community,” Brooks said.
Brooks said this event has been going on for over 20 years and it keeps expanding, which underscores the need for the services.
“Why not use this as a tool to get more families to come and take advantage of learning about other opportunities in the community?,” Brooks said.
Starkville resident Kierra Bush said this event is important for both the adults and the children. Bush said it gives an outlook of everything that is offered throughout community.
“I’m very impressed,” Bush said. “There are some things I didn’t know that we actually had in Starkville.”
Bush emphasized how the health screenings are helpful for parents. She said scheduling can be difficult, so this provides an easy solution.
“It’s a place where you can just do everything at one time,” Bush said.
Brooks said she wants to continue to get the community involved and serve as a support system for each and every citizen of the city and county.
“We are trying to build strong families and that’s what today is all about.” Brooks said.