Excerpted from the Tacoma News Tribune
By Neil Pierson
The average American family will spend $96.39 this year to buy classroom supplies for their children. But that number tells only part of the story for families struggling to make ends meet.
On average, families will spend more than $225 on clothes, $181 on electronics and computers and $102 on shoes as their children head back to school this fall.
Those expenses can be a real hardship to families at or below the poverty line, said Eric Shields, master instructor at Champions Martial Arts Center in South Hill. In his efforts to give back to the community, Shields is conducting a back-to-school supply drive that runs through the end of August.
“There’s so many kids that are going to school and they can’t afford stuff,” he said. “We’re not the kind of school that just wants to take in money and not give back.”
The martial arts studio will be accepting money and all types of supplies through Aug. 31 and plans to bring them to Communities in Schools of Puyallup, which will distribute them to students in each of the Puyallup School District’s 32 schools.
Jan Mauk, program coordinator for Communities in Schools, said her group is looking for any kind of donation but is focusing on “some of the little more expensive items that people can’t buy on their own.” Those include backpacks, binders, colored pencils and fine-tipped markers like Sharpies.
Several area businesses have partnered with Communities in Schools in the supply drive. Red Canoe Credit Union has offered a pound-for-pound match for donations at its South Hill branch and six other locations: Puyallup City Hall, the school district’s Education Service Center, The Puyallup Fair and Events Center, the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce, South Hill Mall and Rejuvenation Salon and Spa.
Shields feels it’s important his students learn the value of giving back to others who are less fortunate. “People think martial arts is just kick and punch, kick and punch,” Shields said. “We’re taking martial arts out of the classroom and applying it to the real world.”
“We’ve been getting great response. Kids are really trying to see what they can do to help,” he added. “If you donate one pencil or $1,000, it doesn’t matter. It’s going to make a difference in at least one person’s life.”