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  • Terry Taylor of Cumberland’s Union Rescue Mission, left, hands out school supplies to children Monday afternoon. Steve Bittner/Times-News

    Mission: Possible
August 24, 2010

Mission: Possible

As tough times continue, timing perfect for school supply giveaway

Kristin Harty Barkley Cumberland Times-News

— CUMBERLAND — Terry Taylor handed a grocery sack full of school supplies to the next child in line Monday morning, sizing her up.

“Are you going into fourth grade?” Taylor asked the girl, who came to the Union Rescue Mission Monday afternoon to get free school supplies.

“Second grade?” Taylor guessed again. The girl shook her head.

“First?”

“Third!” the girl said.

“There you go, sweetie,” said Taylor, handing over the bag containing a spiral notebook, binders, folders, loose-leaf paper and other supplies. “Have fun. These are the best years of your life. Don’t let anybody tell you different.”

About 50 children and their families lined up outside the Rescue Mission in downtown Cumberland for Monday’s perfectly timed giveaway. School was scheduled to start Tuesday in Allegany County.

Though the Allegany County Board of Education provides “essential school supplies” for students, including rulers, glue, protractors, and bulk crayons, parents and guardians are responsible for providing notebooks, binders, backpacks and other supplies.

At John Humbird Elementary School, where close to 90 percent of students receive free or reduced lunches, it’s not uncommon for students to show up on the first day of school without the necessary supplies, said Principal Frank Billard.

During the school’s annual back-to-school bash last week, 20 students won backpacks full of school supplies in a give-away paid for through school fund-raisers, Billard said.

“Often we do get students coming in who don’t have anything,” he said. “We will take them to the supply closet and give it to them quietly. ... It’s nice to see the community stepping in to help, especially in these economic times.”

The Rescue Mission’s program, which started about a decade ago when Western Maryland Health System employees began collecting supplies, used to attract just a trickle of interest throughout the school year, said the Rev. Dan Taylor, Terry Taylor’s husband and director of the mission.

Last year, the mission gave away 150 bags, and it has as many to give away this year, he said.

“We just put the word out on the street,” Dan Taylor said. “Whoever shows up gets it.”

Groups that helped collect supplies for the mission this year included the hospital, Danville Baptist Church, and Hunter Douglas, which contributed $500 cash, Dan Taylor said.

“We’re always short on binders and notebook paper, so we bought binders and notebook paper with that money,” he said. Any extra supplies will be taken to John Humbird Elementary, he said.

Debra Flanagan’s twins are attending second-grade this fall at John Humbird, which also partners with the Maryland Food Bank to send 36 children home with  backpacks full of food every Friday during the school year, Billard said.  

“We look at families where we think we can supplement that child’s diet over the weekend,” Billard said.

Flanagan stood in line with her children at the Rescue Mission Monday morning to get two bags of school supplies.

“It’s rough,” Flanagan said of making ends meet.

Frostburg resident Nichole Diehl picked up two bags of school supplies for her children, who are starting second grade and kindergarten at Beall Elementary.

“Every little bit helps,” said Diehl, who is expecting another child at the end of August. “It gets expensive.”

Contact Kristin Harty Barkley at kbarkley@times-news.com.

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