Table of Grace holds school supply drive

Holy Trinity Lutheran’s school supply drive ends this week.

Parents can still sign up students to receive school supplies through the end of the week.

“Through our fundraising, we are able to buy a full list of school supplies for kids,” Timm Lindeman, Table of Grace director, said. “If they sign up and give us the grade they’re in, the teacher they’ve got, we can cross-reference that with the school supply lists that have been put out by the school.”

Through the Table of Grace mobile food pantry, Holy Trinity Lutheran serves Cheyenne County and the surrounding counties.

Last year, nearly 150 area students received supplies through the church effort.

“We don’t screen,” Lindeman said. “People don’t have to prove they ‘need’ it. We have 150 kids, three school districts, and K through 12. We don’t begrudge anybody if they want to sign up.”

He added, “Everybody’s need is different.”

One item the effort doesn’t need are backpacks. Through Table of Grace, the effort has received nearly 40 backpacks.

“We did backpacks initially. The problem with that is, every kid’s got a different personality. When they get a backpack, they want to have it their own way,” Lindeman said. “We stopped doing that after a few years.”

Holy Trinity Lutheran has been hosting a school supply drive for seven years.

“It’s not a hardship on us financially,” Lindeman said. “We go out of our way to do a pretty good job fundraising, so we’re able to handle it.”

Lindeman led similar efforts while working with previous ministries.

“The church I was part of in Michigan had a social ministry committee that was involved in Habitat for Humanity, food pantries, school supplies, Christmas meals,” he said.

Witnessing the community’s support for the effort has been inspiring, Lindeman said.

“The community has been great with this,” he said. “Sometimes when you ask for school supplies, if you’re not real specific you might get stuff you don’t necessarily need or not enough of something.”

To register your student for school supplies, contact Holy Trinity Lutheran at 254-3124 and provide a current address and phone number. Donations can be made by contacting the same number.

The registration period ends Friday.