With summer spreading out before us, swimming, camping, traveling and playing outside are the order of the day; return to school is not in mind, but it is not long from now. And supplies need to be bought to start the new school year.

For the past two years, Wiscasset’s Set for Success (S4S) program, an arm of the Feed Our Scholars Initiative, has worked with PIE (Partners In Education) to make sure all the children at Wiscasset Elementary School are set for success, but the groups cannot do it alone. We need the support of the greater community to provide those supplies. 

Parents, grandparents, businesses and interested people can help by donating items from the wish list that can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/S4SWish2021. Items bought are shipped to S4S directly.

Or buy supplies locally and leave them at St. Philip’s Church, 12 Hodge St., Wiscasset, in the Set For Success box in Lippiat Hall or at The First Bank on Route 27, Gardiner Road. Whether able to provide a lot or a little, people can help support the education of our future leaders. Let’s make sure they’re ready to lead us.

Want to donate money? There are donation containers in businesses around Wiscasset, and at the Chamber of Commerce information booth at the waterfront. Finally, a possible way of supporting the program is to send a check to St. Philip’s Church with Set For Success on the memo line. Those funds will allow the group to bulk buy needed items.

While the group wanted very much to hold its celebratory event as it did the first year, when working with the school personnel earlier this year, we found it prudent to once again provide the supplies to the classroom teachers for dispensing to the students. We look forward to being able to return to the stirring celebration of school success for the 2022-23 school year.