10th Annual Back 2 School Bash draws hundreds

Houston County Family Connection Collaborative (HCFCC) took the lead on this year’s Back to School Bash for Houston County Youth. The event was hosted by HCFCC at CB Watson Primary School in Warner Robins on Friday morning and had about 2,000 backpacks, as well as school supplies to give out to students. The Houston County Health Department provided free health screenings to the attendees and Central Georgia Technical College Barber School provided free haircuts.

The executive director of Houston County Family Connection Collaborative, Tina Foss, noted that this was the first year that HCFCC led this event, as the Warner Robins Housing Authority had overseen and led it for the past nine years. However, the Housing Authority had assisted with the planning process this year as well.

“The Warner Robins Housing Authority has been doing it for the last nine years and we’ve been partnering with them to help support the event,” said Foss. “This is our first year with the lead on it, but the event like this has been going on for ten years.”

The amount of attendance has varied through the years, but every year the goal is to never run out of backpacks and supplies. The number of backpacks to donate is determined by how many are given away during one particular bash. With last year’s event donating around 2,000 backpacks, Foss noted that this year’s bash would have roughly the same number available to give away.

“It’s varied through the years, so we determine this year by how many backpacks we give away. We want to try to not run out. We’ve had as many as 5,000 backpacks and as little as 2,000,” Foss said.

About 45 vendors participated in the event to provide ample resources and information for students and their families. The event is designed to be two-fold, giving kids the supplies they need and providing parents with the necessary resources to help them be successful and aid their families.

“We have about 45 vendors inside with resources, so we really want this event to be two-fold,” Foss said. “We want kids to have the supplies they need to be successful, but secondly, we want the parents to have the resources that they might need to be successful and help their family whether it’s jobs, whether it’s emergency funding because their car broke down or whether it’s that they have children and they want to get them in after school activities with the boys and girls club or at girl scouts.”

Warner Robins Housing Authority assisted in the planning for this event. Other community partners of the event included the City of Warner Robins, WellCare Health Plans, Georgia Military College, Office Depot Office Max, Care Source, Robins Financial Credit Union, Mount Calvary Lutheran Church, Kroger and others.