Non-Profit Gives Families Help With School Supplies

Ana Perez’s three children are standing near the warehouse’s exit, each clutching a plastic bag bulging with clothing and notebooks and pens and pencils.

They are among the approximately 700 children coming to the C.R.O.S.S. (Christians Reaching Out in Social Service) headquarters this month to receive about $20,000 worth of school supplies donated by area churches, businesses and community members.

The Perez family is ready to leave when Char Lake, C.R.O.S.S’s coordinator, asks a question of Aereyda, a fifth-grader at Dayton Elementary school.

“Do you have a winter jacket?” Lake asks Aereyda.

The 10-year-old fidgets and looks around absently.

“She didn’t find one,” says her mother.

“I have a winter jacket, but it has to be washed,” Lake says. “It’s got the zip lining, it’s got the hood. Do you want me to go get it?”

Aereyda shrugs a “yes,” and Lake disappears into the back offices, returning with a puffy turquoise coat that she fluffs twice before holding open for Aereyda to slip into.

The coat fits snugly over Aereyda’s slight frame, and she cracks a shy smile.

“It’s beautiful,” says her four-year-old brother Joshua.

Back to school

Lake has worked as C.R.O.S.S.’s coordinator since 2004, when the Lions Club helped the organization move from a warehouse “the size of two kitchens” into their current facility. She supervises 2,000 volunteers a month and works with local churches--more than 30 contributed to the school supply program--and businesses.

“My favorite part of C.R.O.S.S. is being able to help the people who need it,” she said. “You see them on the corner with their backpacks, and we tell them to get As on their report cards.”

The most popular back to school items are shoes, backpacks, combination locks and flash drives, Lake said. Each family gets one pair of shoes and one backpack; combination locks and flash drives are in such high demand that they only go to students attending schools that require them.

To receive school supplies from C.R.O.S.S., families must be registered with the non-profit and live within the area. C.R.O.S.S., based in Rogers, serves Maple Grove as well as West Champlin, Corcoran, Dayton, Hassan, Osseo and Rogers.

Lake said she tries to make appointments for families that use C.R.O.S.S.’s food shelf program.

School supply trends

do not have an official program for distributing school supplies in place, though some churches and parent groups donate supplies to the schools, said Aisha Eady, District 279 Marketing Communications Specialist.

Lake said she noticed a jump in demand for school supplies during the recession.

“More middle class people are coming here,” she said. “People who have not been to a place like this before.”

Lake also noticed that technologies such as zip drives have been creeping onto school supply lists.

Eady said that school supply lists can follow the cultural climate.

“After the flu outbreak a couple of years ago,” she said, “students have been asked to bring hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes.”

“While school supplies are not the biggest need,” Eady said, “a larger need arises for winter wear during the cold-weather months.”

A history of volunteerism

Historically, helping area children with school supplies has been a staple at C.R.O.S.S.

Addie Maser has been with the C.R.O.S.S. food bank since its inception in 1978.

“We were on top of the liquor store in Osseo,” she said. “We had one little room this big--that’s how we started out.”

In the late 1980s, Maser had a fundraising idea.

“Addie said, ‘Why don’t we have a quilt raffle,’” Lake said.

Her first raffle raised $500, which C.R.O.S.S. put toward school supplies.

“Since then, every year it’s grown,” Lake said. “Word of mouth brings in more companies and more volunteers--and then we recruit.”

C.R.O.S.S. volunteers cite their affinity for each other as their motivation for helping

“The biggest reason this old lady comes,” Maser said, “is to visit with the volunteers--they’re great.”

“It’s really fun when our volunteers who know about the program find out something we really need and go out and buy it,” said Linda Reid, another long-time volunteer.

Volunteer Milt Peters said C.R.O.S.S. draws volunteers from its clients.

“The kids that receive school supplies--a lot of them come back and volunteer, and they love it,” he said.

Editor's note: Do you want to donate school supplies? Bring school supply (or cash) donations to C.R.O.S.S. at 12915 Weinand Circle, Rogers. Or call C.R.O.S.S. at 763-425-1050.