Churches provide school supplies for Dyer students

By Lori Cathey   

Dyer School held a Back to School Block Party and Open House for students to get their school supplies and meet their teachers Thursday.

This year, Dyer students from kindergarten through eighth grade don’t have to purchase supplies for the school year because local churches and business provided all of those to the children.

Dyer classroom sponsors are Cumberland Presbyterian Church, New Bethlehem Baptist, Dyer First Baptist, Dyer Church of Christ, New Hope Baptist, First United Methodist, Dyer First Baptist, Dyer First Assembly of God and Beech Grove Baptist. American Woodmark of Humboldt donated supplies to all fifth through eighth grade students.

“This vision behind this came from the fact that local churches help with school supplies each year, said Kevin Turner, principal of Dyer School. “We thought it would be neat if each community church would ‘sponsor’ a specific grade and buy all the school supplies for each student in that specific grade.  Back in May, I communicated with all the churches and told them the vision. They all eagerly jumped on board. I assigned each church a grade, sent them the prospective supply list, and the number of students per grade. We wanted this to be a community event so we invited the churches to come and hand out supplies at our open house/block party. Every student at Dyer School received 100% of their school supply list for free. This means that every student is coming to school prepared with all the needed supplies to have a successful year. The cost of one student’s supplies ranges from $20 to $75. This community effort greatly benefited the students and their parents by removing the financial burden of purchasing school supplies. We have been engulfed with parents expressing their gratitude. Dyer Elementary is a great school to be a part of and we are grateful to have such community support.”