Kingdom Life Church hosted its 10th annual Back 2 School Bash Saturday, July 22.
This year, the event consisted of three outreach projects — Hibbett Sports Shoes of Hope Giveaway & Games, a Backpack Giveaway & Games at Glendale Apartments and a Backpack Giveaway & Games at The Housing Authority.
“Our goal is to provide hope and confidence for a successful year to those students who really need it,” said Coletta Patterson, formerly of Kingdom Life Church, now a member of New Hope Assembly in Arkansas with her husband Tony. “A team of individuals from our church in Arkansas is with us hosting the projects.”
This is the third year that New Hope Assembly has come to Kosciusko to continue the tradition begun by the Pattersons through Kingdom Life Church.
Tony Patterson estimates that the 2017 event distributed about $15,000 in goods to 135 selected youths, including $8,500 in shoe gift cards alone. Students receiving the assistance were identified by the church, which worked with city and county schools.
In addition to the giveaways, the events included games, food, snacks and donated clothing.
A variety of individuals and groups donated their time to organize and run the events:
The Exodus Project
First United Methodist Church youth
Kosciusko Junior Auxiliary
Dr. Fred Hickmon
Andrea Myers
Kingdom Life Church members
New Hope Assembly
The sponsors for this year were
New Hope Assembly of God Church of Rogers, Ark., which provided funding for the Hibbett Sports gift card, pizza and a team of 20 people to host the event.
Hibbett Sports provided $10-off coupons.
Ocean Spray donated juice.
Walmart of Pleasant Grove/Rogers, Ark. provided games.
Frito Lay/PepsiCo provided chips.
Little Debbie provided snacks cakes.
New Creature of Rogers, Ark. donated goody bags.
Hope Distributors of Springdale, Ark. provided goody bags, water, socks and backpacks with school supplies.
CocaCola donated goody bags.
The Rogers, Ark. fire department and several individuals from northwest Arkansas provided monetary donations.
