By James Massara

Members of the Bucyrus United Methodist Church provided more than 400 bags of schools supplies to children in need from Bucyrus, Colonel Crawford, Wynford and Fairway schools Thursday, July 27, during a school supply carnival and information fair.

Local residents and a grant from Walmart provided more than $9,000 to purchase the supplies.

Children who attended received basic school supplies including paper, pencils, glue, coloring utensils and more. Clothing and personal hygiene and health kits also were available for children. Random children were selected to win backpacks and Walmart gift cards.

“We had more than 60 volunteers participate in a rip and pack party,” event chairperson Glenda Leuthold said. “We had a lot of people helping, because we all want to help those who need it.”

While waiting for their turn to receive supplies, children had the chance to participate in carnival games, get free refreshments, watch a hula-hoop demonstration and have their faces painted.

More than 20 various groups had information present on how the children and their parents may use the groups in the future.

The event has taken place for more than 10 years.

“Another church started the event and when we took over we had the mentality of ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it,’” Leuthold said. “We want to just keep helping as many people as we can.”