Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Abbey Adkison - THE BATTALION The Business Student Council's Project Mays is collecting school supplies for students in the Bryan Independent School District. Donations can be made at the Crayon drop box in front of Wehner 113 until April 14th. [Click to enlarge]

School bells will ring to dismiss students from class one final time at the end of the year. Children will anxiously board their transportation home with dreams of whiling their summer hours coloring with crayons and markers and perhaps practicing their cursive handwriting. But this is not often the case for children who come from underprivileged households.

To help meet the educational summer needs for underprivileged students in the Bryan Independent School District, the Texas A&M Business Student Council's Project Mays is collecting school supplies and money to purchase them. The second annual event will benefit four of the 16 elementary schools in BISD, chosen for the high percentage reported students qualifying for free or reduced cost lunches.

According to the Free & Reduced Program Report, as of Feb. 15, Jones Elementary School has 94 percent of its 601 students, kindergarten through fifth grade, qualifying for free or reduced cost lunch. Elementary schools Milam, Neal and Kemp have 91-95 percent of students who qualify.

Because of this demonstrated need, the BSC began a supply drive on March 24 and will collect supplies and money donations until April 14. Donations can be made at the Crayon drop box in front of Wehner 113. It only takes$10 to buy one backpack. So far, Bryan Student Council has collected $14,000 in monetary donations through student and corporate sponsorship.

The organizers of the event, junior accounting major and Vice President of events Michael Kurt, senior finance major and Project Mays Committee Head Ross Willmann and senior marketing major and Committee Head Kyle Pope, said they want to draw attention to the poverty situation in Bryan. Though there is an appeal to purchasing supplies and adding a personal touch to the supplies donation, they encourage students to make monetary donations since the BSC will be able to purchase the school supplies for pennies on the dollar.

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