(image: Facebook)
A local organization is providing a record number of students with the school supplies they need to go back to school in the coming days.
Project Pencils is a local non-profit headquartered in St. Michael that is in its 10th year of providing school supplies to families with students who need them.
Hollee Saville, president of Project Pencils, says a record 906 students will be provided with backpacks or bags filled with all the specific school supplies they need to start the school year.
Some 400 individuals, families, businesses and organizations have supplied the items needed to fill the needs of the students this year.
Officials say this year’s needs are greater than ever. Several families are experiencing homelessness, battling illness, and many students receiving supplies are from single parent families.
More than 100 volunteers have helped to prepare the supplies from lists from 48 public schools in Wright County. Around 25 volunteers helped on the distribution days at the Saville family’s home in St. Michael.
Since 2016, more than 54 hundred students have received back-to-school supplies from Project Pencils.
