To the Editor:

Church & Community Program’s annual school supply program blossomed into a Back to School Program this year, complete with brand-new stylish sneakers for each student so we’d like to thank our donors and volunteers for making this possible.

With assistance from school counselors, we distributed applications throughout the spring and summer to families with students K-12 in the Canton Central, Hermon-DeKalb, and Edwards-Knox school districts. On Aug. 22, more than 180 students received new school supplies, a nice new backpack, certificates for free haircuts, dental supplies and more. Congratulations to Pat Sibbitts and her crew of CCP volunteers for making this program happen.

Thank you to all of our donors, to Sam Reeder of the Salvation Army for the new backpacks, to Stewart's for awarding us a $1,400 Holiday Match, to Midtown Hair for providing haircuts, to local dentists for providing dental supplies, local churches for collecting items we needed, and to Canton United Methodist Church for allowing us to store and sort mountains of supplies. As always, thanks go to the many volunteers of all ages who work so diligently and cheerfully to help CCP.

This Back to School Program kicked off a new endeavor for CCP: Boots on the Ground. It’s actually, sneakers, shoes and boots, but it’s our intention to help those in need put their best foot forward with good work shoes, warm boots and essential kid gear -- sneakers! CCP Board members Fran Bailey and Cheryl Glidden worked hard to establish this program, making many trips to MVP Sports in Potsdam to get all the right sizes and to sort the hundreds of sneakers while other volunteers organized school supplies, donations, etc. Thank you to Leigh Stark of MVP Sports, who provided sneakers at wholesale prices and gave us lots of free advice on sizes.

We also very much appreciate the support of special “Boots” business and individual donors.

Connie Jenkins,
Church & Community Program Director
Canton