UC Helps Inner-City Children Prepare for School

Notebooks, pencils, dictionaries and tissues (by special request) are among the bounty headed to Cincinnati Public’s Burton Elementary School, as the University of Cincinnati helps schoolchildren prepare for starting back to school next week. A vanload of goods collected from UC’s third-annual school supply drive will depart from the loading dock of UC’s Dabney Hall at noon, Friday, Aug. 18, and is scheduled to arrive at Burton Elementary, located at 876 Glenwood Ave., at around 12:15 p.m.

“The school supply drive exemplifies the UC|21 strategic plan’s commitment to serving the local community,” says Mitchel D. Livingston, Vice President for Student Affairs and Services. Beginning on July 20, students of the UC Darwin T. Turner Scholars program and staff representing UC’s Office of Resident Education and Development set up boxes at dozens of collection points across the Uptown West, Uptown East and regional campuses. As staffers now round up the goods, they’ll be accepting school supply and monetary donations from the university community through 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, at the Office of Resident Education and Development, located on the fourth floor of Dabney Hall.

Dawn Wilson, assistant dean of students and director of Resident Education and Development, says that for those who still want to contribute, graph paper, dictionaries, protractors, compasses, calculators, backpacks and half-inch to one-inch three-ring binders would be helpful. The $245 in monetary donations is paying for a new overhead projector for the school.

“It’s marvelous to see what a contribution the university can make when there is a collective effort by so many people,” says Wilson. “It’s especially gratifying to know we give Burton Elementary something that will continue to help many students over time.” She adds that the Burton Elementary School children will benefit from the following supplies raised from the collection effort:

• 700 spiral notebooks
• More than 2,000 pencils
• Five cases of notebook paper
• Four cases (496 boxes) of crayons
• 12 backpacks/bookbags
• 48 pencil cases
• Two cases of file folders
• Two-and-a-half cases of pens
• Hundreds of colored markers
• 36 dictionaries
• 46 color pencil sets
• 120 bottles of glue
• 125 glue sticks
• Two cases of three-ring binders
• 100 rulers
• 24 pairs of scissors
• 96 highlighters
• Six calculators
• 20 protractors
• 10 compasses
• Too many erasers and sharpeners to count
• 24 boxes of tissues (a special request from Burton Elementary teachers preparing for cold season)

Children attending Cincinnati Public Schools head back to the classroom on Aug. 22 (except for Walnut Hills, which started on Aug. 15). At the University of Cincinnati, students begin classes on Sept. 20 and move into the residence halls Sept. 14-15.