Back to School Bash provides supplies

This year's Back to School Bash slated for Saturday, Aug. 1, will serve hundreds of children.

Originally the brain child of teachers Joe and Malinda Stewart, as well as B.J. Dye and Noah Mitchell, the event has grown to become a product of the efforts of several groups and many volunteers, according to Dye.

"Acually Noah Mitchell, Malinda and Joe Stewart and I were just running around trying to gather supplies the first couple of years," Dye said, remembering the origin of this year's annual event. Mitchell was the youth minister at Pea Ridge First Baptist Church at the time.

Sponsored by the Pea Ridge Ministerial Alliance, First Baptist Church Pea Ridge, and Bright Futures, Pea Ridge, the Back to School Bash is manned by many volunteers including teachers and students.

Last year, no child went to school without school supplies, school superintendent Rick Neal said, praising the event.

People may line up at 7:30 a.m. and doors will open at 8 a.m. Children must be present. The event is for children of the Pea Ridge School district.

There is a free pancake breakfast, cooked by FBC pastor Al Fowler. There are school supplies and clothes free for all.

"It is incredible how our community all comes together to make this happen for all the children," said Dye, chairman of Bright Futures Advisory Board. "It's not just FBC, the teachers or Bright Futures -- the whole community has come together."

Dye said $300 was received in cash donations from the Stuff the Bus event last Saturday, as well as many school supplies. A donation from the Freedom Fest car show will also help fund the Back to School Bash.

Volunteers from city officials, Girl Scouts, National Honor Society, teachers, Bright Futures and the community manned the bus last weekend for the Stuff the Bus, Dye said.