Wiscasset Elementary School’s cafeteria and grounds will be a magical place on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 11, from 1 to 3 p.m. All Wiscasset Elementary School students, Pre-K to Grade 5, as well as the private school and home-schooled children of those ages that would have gone to the school, are welcome to queue up with their parents to receive a special backpack to fill with required school supplies for their particular class’s needs for starting the new school year. Feed Our Scholars (FOS), along with the Parents In Education (PIE) group, are committed to making sure that all children, regardless of personal circumstances, are ready to have a great school year.

Patterned after the very successful Boothbay region effort, Wiscasset’s S4S event will offer haircuts by local stylists and barbers, informational tables full of social safety net resources, face painting, a children’s clothing boutique care of St. Philip’s Bargain Basement, with other possibilities still being firmed up. Also in attendance will be many school staff and teachers to meet and greet incoming students, helping to start the new year in an upbeat manner. And don’t forget the ice pop bar, care of the PIE group!

Feed Our Scholars can’t fund this effort alone. In the tradition of a community helping to raise all children, FOS is hoping that people will help to make this initiative a reality with donations of school supplies and/or monetary support. Big Al’s, Ames Supply, the Wiscasset Community Center, St. Philip’s Church, and the First Congregational Church have all graciously agreed to host donation boxes and lists of school supplies needed. One can also go to the Feed Our Scholars Facebook page for a listing. There will also be buying in bulk for several items, including the backpacks and supplies for 250 children. Please consider forwarding a monetary donation to St. Philip’s Church with Feed Our Scholars Set For Success on the memo line and send it to St. Philip’s Church, 12 Hodge St., Wiscasset, 04578. No donation is too small or too large.