JoAnn Haberer
Take a bow, Quail Creek, because once again you’ve come through in a big way. The new school year is now underway and many local kids who wouldn’t have had the necessary school supplies now have them, thanks to you. Youth On Their Own, or YOTO, is an organization that serves not only Tucson but also Green Valley and Sahuarita to help homeless and abandoned teens stay in school. One of the obstacles for these kids is paying for the school supplies that are required at the beginning of each school year. The list of necessary items seems to get longer and more expensive each year: backpacks, calculators, paper, pens, markers, notebooks, flash drives, the list goes on and on. And for a student who’s working a part-time job with no parents to help him, paying for back-to-school supplies can seem overwhelming.
This year, The Women of Quail Creek YOTO School Supplies Drive gathered over twelve hundred items. That’s a lot of pens, backpacks and spiral notebooks. Also, over six hundred dollars was raised to help students buy the items they needed that weren’t donated.
“This is one of YOTO’s most important projects,” said Diane Quinn, liaison for TWOQC and YOTO in Green Valley/Sahuarita. “And seeing the community support for these kids has been heart-warming.”
Even though the school year has already begun, students are still coming in to YOTO requesting supplies. The Women of Quail Creek school supplies bin will remain in the Madera Clubhouse until September 30. Now that many items are on sale or closeout, why not pick up a few final pen packs, notebooks or markers and drop them off before the end of the month? A community’s greatest asset is a hard-working and educated new generation. Let’s give the kids of Green Valley and Sahuarita the tools they need to succeed.