Amarillo Rainbow Room helps area children in need with back to school drive

The Texas Department of Child Protective Services' Amarillo Rainbow Room is encouraging the public to participate in its Back to School Supply Drive. The drive includes both monetary and school supply donations, which will be accepted until Aug. 31 and can be dropped off at its Amarillo office, located at 3521 SW 15th Ave.

With the drive, the Amarillo Rainbow Room is asking for any donation of basic school supplies such as backpacks, pencils, pens, calculators, notebooks, glue, rulers and folders.

According to Jenn Sugg, Rainbow Room coordinator for CPS, some additional items that they have seen a rise in need for this year are composition notebooks, 24-packs of Crayola crayons, glue sticks, dry erase markers, a 10-pack of regular colored markers and one-inch, three-ringed notebooks.

"We are just trying to supply the basic supplies in each bag; we already have the backpacks donated to us from a donor. We are just trying to make sure that for at least the first three months of school, these kids have the basic needs to begin the school year," Sugg said.

The goal for the drive is to fill 400 backpacks for area children in need with basic school supplies by the end of the month. Sugg said they currently have approximately enough supplies to fill 200 backpacks and are asking the community to help reach their goal.

"These supplies are important to our kids because they've already endured horrific abuse or neglect, and so having new school supplies to start the first day of school is just one thing that we can offer to help raise these kids' self-esteem and give them a little bit of normalcy," Sugg said.

To make a monetary donation to the supply drive, the organization is asking individuals to make their checks available to the Amarillo Rainbow Room, and write what they would like the donation to benefit.

Individuals can also donate items online by donating to the group's school supply Amazon wish list at https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3HVN64ETDDTGM?ref_=wl_fv_le .

For more information about the Amarillo Rainbow Room, follow them on Facebook or contact Sugg by emailing her at jennifer.sugg@dfps.texas.gov .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo Rainbow Room helps kids in need with back to school drive