School fund drive erases student lunch debt

A fundraising drive originally started to erase school lunch debt for Hope Elementary students has grown to help students and their families with all their financial needs.

The drive started off with a small goal says Whitney Budd, one of the organizers. She and her husband were talking about their youngest son starting school soon.

"We were talking about how both of our parents just found it extremely stressful -- it was a financial burden -- for them to be able to provide book rentals and lunch money and school clothes and shoes," Budd said. "And we just thought 'How many parents are in the position right now that we are?' Where they have their first child starting kindergarten and they have all these unexpected expenses. We thought, lets just do a little something in our backyard and have a root beer float stand and maybe our neighbors would come out. And we will just give the school the money we earned for kids that their lunch money gets depleted quickly."

She shared the idea on Facebook and overnight it had 1,600 shares. It became apparent that it had already outgrown the back yard. She called in her friend, Stephanie Long, to help organize the growing event.

"She said 'Sure, let's do it!' because she just jumps into anything like this," Budd said. 

Working with Town Manager J.T. Doane, the July 22nd event moved to the Hope Town Square. Budd expected 250 people. 

"Within an hour, we went through 350 cups," Budd said.

The root beer float event, which was entirely free will donations, raised more than $6,800. And the money kept coming in along with phone calls, with people asking how they can help. Soon, the donations passed more than $7,000 dollars and the Community Center of Hope stepped up, offering a $2,500 matching donation. Recognizing the need, Budd said they decided to take steps to formalize the local fund.

"Stephanie and I started the non-profit called Students Fund of Hope," Budd said. "Every other month, we hope to have an event that can fund the things that the kids in the school system might need. Whether that be lunch money, or whether that may be book rental help. That may mean shoes or that may mean help with their field trips because the parents have to pay for those field trips. It may mean that the school is struggling with substance abuse issues in the high school and they want to have a convocation. We can go ahead and provide funds for a convocation. Anything that the school would need or the students would need, we want to have a fund there so hat they can say 'We have this need, can you help us?'"

The first spending from the new fund was made last Tuesday, when they wrote a check for $6,000 covering the lunch money debts for student accounts that were already in the small claims court collection system.

"We went ahead and wiped all of those accounts clean, so they can start the school year fresh with a zero balance," Budd said.

The next event for the Students Fund of Hope is already being planned. On Sept. 14th, there will be a movie night on the Hope Town Square, showing the Disney film "Moana." Although the rights to air the film publicly were steep, Norman Funeral Home, C.A. Miller Construction and Tiling and Design Diva stepped in to cover those costs. 

"Families can come and bring their blankets, bring their chairs," Budd said. "We will have hot dogs and popcorn for sale."

Starting at 7 p.m. there will be free activities for kids, she said. The movie will start at 8 p.m.

Much like the root beer float stand, the movie night will be free will donations.

"We didn't want to put a price tag on it, because... the whole purpose is to help these families that need help," Budd said. "So we don't want to put a price tag on something and have them not be able to attend... Every event we do, we hope to make it free-will donation."