HUGHESTOWN — Just about two months ago, Ginger Murphy and Lane Simkonis, as members of the Pittston Jacquelines of the Knight of Columbus, were looking for a project when it was decided to raise money and donations for bags of school supplies to be given to Pittston Area and Wyoming Area middle school students.
“We were sitting around at the Knights one night and Lane said, ‘Let’s do a project for the kids,’” said Murphy, president of the Jacquelines. “I said everyone does projects for the kids and Lane suggested school supplies.”
Once fellow Jacquelines approved the fundraiser, it was a go.
The idea turned it raising enough money to buy supplies and receiving donations to fill 2,000 bags.
The bags are filled with pencils, notebooks, crayons, a ruler, a folder and other supplies, as well as hygiene products like toothpaste and a toothbrush.
“Most of the supplies came from donors going to different organizations and businesses and, with monetary donations, we went out and bought more supplies,” Murphy said. “Everyone (businesses) was cooperative.”
It is estimated over $5,000 in supplies and hygiene will be handed out to students in both school districts.
Murphy is not sure if the Jacquelines will follow up with the same project next year, but will re-evaluate in the coming months.
“It was a lot of hard work and Lane and I did most of the work with the help of about 12 other fellow Jacquelines,” Murphy said.
Murphy and Simkonis wanted to make it clear that every child in Middle School was to receive a supply bag.
“It was suggested that we only donate the supply bags to needy children and I know sometimes middle and upper class students fall through the cracks and we want every single student to be the recipient of the bags,” Murphy said.
“We didn’t want to discriminate; every kid is getting a bag,” Simkonis added.
Murphy estimated Pittston Area will receive a little under 1,100 bags and Wyoming Area will get over 800 bags.
According to Simkonis, most of the money and donations came from the Pittston Area School District side of the river with very little help from the Wyoming Area side.
“A lot of people on the West Side have not responded, not even for donations; it’s mostly the Pittston side,” Simkonis said.
“I was approached by Ginger of the Jacquelines about doing a project where they wanted to try to give supplies to all of the students in our school,” Martin L. Mattei Middle School Principal Patrick Bilbow said. “What was really nice about this project was they didn’t want to give the supply bags to just those in need; they wanted to make sure every single kid in the building received a bag.”
Bilbow said some of the school’s service clubs aided the Jacquelines in passing out bags to all the homerooms.
Sixth-grade Middle School math teacher Holly Zbysheski was extremely happy to see the donations.
“I walked in to my classroom not knowing the materials were provided and I thought it was phenomenal,” she said. “There are a lot of students in our district that could benefit from the packages that were donated – awesome!”
Over the years, Zbysheski noted many teachers buy supplies for students out of their own pockets, saying the Jacquelines’ donation was a great help.
“We want to thank all the businesses and individuals that donated supplies or money for the project, including the Knights of Columbus Home Association and the Pittston Area Builders Club,” Murphy said.
Simkonis pointed out the bags can double as a bag to carry gym clothing to school.
