Published: August 02, 2008 10:12 pm            

‘Back to the Book’ at First Baptist draws more than 1,500

A school supply project by a local church that was envisioned by a member 13 years ago has grown into an outreach that takes 365 days to plan and implement.

Saturday morning’s “Back to the Book” was the culmination of a year of planning and buying as around 250 volunteers at First Baptist in Dalton served more than 1,500 students in 650 families with book bags and every conceivable type of school supply — plus a Bible or devotional book in English or Spanish.

“We pre-screen everyone according to need through community service agencies,” said Phillip Cannon, a pastoral educator at the church. “We want to be good stewards of the church’s money.”

Students in pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade use a card that has their grade of school marked at the top and is punched as they pick up specific grade-level supplies — like pencils, notebooks, crayons, standard calculators or scientific calculators, to name just a few — at each station. The church’s family life center was abuzz with activity as students loaded up after getting their book bags at the first station.

“We also sent 400 book bags to Bland County, Va., in the Appalachians to 250 church members there,” Cannon said of an additional outreach. “The first person in line here was at 10 o’clock last night. Of course, we discourage that, because there will always be plenty to go around.”

First Baptist purchased 2,300 book bags and the requisite supplies before Saturday. Their annual budget for the endeavor is between $35,000 and $40,000, said Cannon.

“I don’t want this to come out wrong, but we want every child who goes to school on the same footing as our children,” he said of the church’s membership. Their sister church, La Iglesia Bautista Nueva Vida, or New Life Baptist Church, has also become heavily involved in the back-to-school ministry.

Elena Salazar, 16, is a member of Nueva Vida and a first-time volunteer.

“I like to help people,” she said, “and it’s a blessing giving out Bibles to people who don’t know God.”

Kevin Soto, 5, was awed during his first visit to the massive outreach and could only say “I like it — it’s fun!”

His mother, Alma Soto, said it “helps her economic (situation)” and “makes her very happy” to have help for her four children.

Christy Rogers has three children who are going to school this week.

“It’s a tremendous help,” she said. “I think it’s really great for the church to do stuff like this for the our community. When families are living off very little, it’s good to have help buying school supplies.”

The project is the brainchild of Nancy Reynolds, a volunteer who formerly worked with several schools in the Dalton system but is now aligned with Girl Scouts.

“Our goal originally was to help children grow with a healthy sense of pride,” she said of her “Christian volunteerism.”

“My philosophy is that regardless of what a child does, or does not have, they’ll never be happy if they don’t know Christ.”

Dr. Steve and Judy Paynter bought the initial supply of book bags, and a couple of Sunday school classes helped fill them with supplies.

“We ended up with one book bag left over after the first year,” Reynolds said, “and I saw God’s hand was in this.”

The first year Back to the Book served 45 students. Five years later the number had grown to 500. It has grown steadily since.

“Why do we do it?” Pastor Bill Wilson responded to a question. “It’s at the heart of who this church is and what it has been — always heavily invested in the community. It’s stewardship of resources and using our talent. It’s part of our DNA, but it’s less about us and more about what we can do for other people.”

“The fact that so many families participate is attributed to the fact that they too value education,” said Becky Jewell, event coordinator. “We begin shopping now for next year. Our shopping team leader, Judy Paynter, knows the best price for all of the supplies. She really shops around to make the most of our missional dollars.”

Over the past few years, a new element has been added to Back to the Book, said Jewell.

“We realized that the siblings who do not yet attend school — those under 3 who were coming with their families — felt left out,” she said, “so we decided to give them each a stuffed animal. This assures that those younger children feel as loved and as special as their older brothers and sisters.”

        

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