Tools 4 School, a program that helps equip students for the upcoming school year, is looking for donations.

St. Paul Lutheran Church began the program in 2005, and over the past 13 years, has helped more than 22,000 local students get a backpack full of school supplies appropriate for their grade.

Mike Corn, one of the event’s volunteers, said that they used to partner with the All Saints Church in Worthington, Ohio, to give out Christmas gifts, clothing, dental and school supplies.

“Then we felt that kids need school supplies and that would be a better project,” he said.

His wife, Nancy Corn, said that the school supplies went first.

“They just went so quickly that it was unbelievable,” she said. “So, since there was such a need, we expanded from that and only do school supplies now.”

Many of the 2,000 kids that come to the event every year are being taken care of by grandparents, who may not have the funds to supply all that a student needs for the first day of school.

“So many kids come to schools without supplies, we just thought this would be a good project,” Mike Corn said.

Items needed for the giveaway include coloring books, fat pencils, 24 packs of crayons, story books, #2 pencils, glue sticks, big erasers, blunt scissors, pencil boxes, wide-ruled notebook paper, wide-ruled spiral notebooks, pointed scissors, folders with pockets, highlighters, dry erase markers, pencil-top erasers, 1-inch 3-ring binders, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, college-ruled notebook paper, college-ruled spiral notebooks and composition notebooks. The items will then be split up to fill the needs for each backpack in grades Pre-K through 12.

Monetary donations to buy school supplies will also be accepted.

For more information about Tools 4 School, to donate or to help participate in the packing days, contact St. Paul Lutheran Church at 740-532-4727 or by email at office.splc1903@swohio.twbc.com.

The largest percentage of the backpacks last year went to students in Ironton, Rock Hill, Dawson-Bryant, Green, Symmes Valley, and South Point schools.

Corn said that they will clean out stores of backpacks and supplies when they find a good deal. He added that that most of the churches in Ironton help out, as do many local businesses.

The 14th annual Tools 4 Schools event will be at 10 a.m. on Aug. 4 at St. Paul Lutheran Church on the corner of Sixth and Center streets in Ironton. The committee is asking for donations to be in by July 22 to give them time to fill the backpacks.