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Published: Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2010 / Updated: Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2010 05:03 PM

Clover school supply drive extended

LAKE WYLIE -- 

Officials at the Clover School District office are smiling pretty.

The school supply drive is finally gaining momentum.

“Someone brought in an entire cart load of boxes of school supplies,” Assistant Superintendent Ron Wright said. “Double what we had. I’m incredibly happy.”

That huge donation touched down at the district office last Monday morning before most people arrived at work, Wright said.

Not a minute too soon.

The huge donation will help answer a silent cry for help for the very basics that some take granted. For those in need, buying the basics like school supplies is a hardship.

It’s a hardship Clover students and their parents will not have to worry about this school year because the Lake Wylie Pilot, along with the Clover School District, are teaming up in support of The Herald’s third annual school supply drive. The drive helps provide school supplies for students who might not otherwise get school tools.

“The economy is still bad in our area,” Jennifer Becknell, Lake Wylie Pilot’s general manager said. “There are a lot of families who need help.”

To that end, school drive organizers are seeking basic school supplies, such as glue sticks, graph paper, rulers, compasses and notebook paper. School supplies can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday at the school district office, 604 Bethel St., or Pilot office, 8 Executive Court, Lake Wylie.

The drive, slated to end this week, has been extended. It will end July 29.

“We still need help with this drive,” Becknell said. “We really appreciate the community’s support.”

In Clover, the need speaks even when the needy can’t or won’t, Wright said.

“We have some thousand kids who are living in poverty,” Wright said.

That’s why a successful school supply drive is paramount: It will right a wrong wrought by the downturn economy and its Great Recession that left some people unemployed or underemployed.

Help came last Monday.

And Wright was all smiles in that no needy Clover student will have to go without because that huge donation many others that tell of a community’s giving spirit and loving heart.

“Donations are really coming in,” Wright said of the uptick in Monday’s donated supplies. “We’re very pleased because we really got off to a slow start. The community is stepping up.”

For its children.

The drive is sponsored by Carolina Pad of Charlotte, the Sheriff’s Foundation of York County Inc., and the staff of the16th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

The Lake Wylie Pilot, along with The Herald and the Clover School District, are teaming up to collect school supplies for needy students.

Organizers are seeking wide- and college-rule notebook paper; protractors; primary writing tablets; hand sanitizer; scissors; crayons; pencils; index cards; glue sticks; plastic storage school boxes; dry erase markers; zipper pencil pouches; highlighters; black “marble” wide-rule composition notebooks; folders with prongs and pockets; black and blue ink pens; book bags; one, two and three-inch binders; non-spiral composition notebooks; markers; loose leaf paper; graph paper; scientific calculators; compasses; rulers; combination locks; three-prong folders; book covers; flash drives; page protectors and book covers.

Supplies will be accepted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Thursday at the district’s administrative office at 604 Bethel St., and the Pilot office, 8 Executive Court, Lake Wylie.

Monetary donations also will be accepted. Checks made payable to Clover School District, earmarked for the school supply drive, may be dropped off at the district office or mailed to the school administrative office.School supplies will be accepted through July 29. For more information, call 803-547-2353.