Generosity prevails through Rye Town school supply drive

When disaster strikes, the community proves time and time again that they’re there to help.

In response to the devastation brought by Tropical Storm Ida on the night of Sept. 1, the Town of Rye has been sponsoring a supply drive for the children of the families who lost many—if not all—of their belongs. And so far, Town officials feel it’s been overwhelmed by generosity.

“Whenever there’s something like this, some tragedy happens, people come through to help,” said Rye Town Director of Grounds and Facilities and Manager of Crawford Park and Mansion Vic Federico, who has been organizing the drive. “You can be the poorest person, and I’ve found people still want to help in times of need.”

The Town is largely asking for new or gently used clothing items and school supplies to help students as they settle into the 2021-22 year. They’re looking for backpacks, clothing for any size and gender—especially winter gear—and school supplies such as binders, pencils, notebooks, calculators and glue sticks.

“We’ve been separating the items by age and gender and organizing the school supplies in different boxes. A lot of people have been dropping off donations so far,” Federico said on Wednesday, Sept. 15. “We have just over 40 boxes of stuff and above 70 bags of clothes. And we’re still getting more, someone just dropped off six bags of clothes today.”

The Town is working with numerous organizations such as the Carver Center, the Salvation Army and the Sharing Shelf to distribute the items to children and families in need.

Anyone who would like to donate supplies is encouraged to drop off goods at the Crawford Mansion any day between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. At this point, Federico said the Town is planning to continue running the supply drive until Friday, Sept. 24.