Seminole County DHS Partners with Salvation Army to Distribute School Supplies

For Media Inquiries, Contact:

The Seminole County office of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) recently partnered with the Salvation Army to help collect and distribute school supplies to low income children.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Seminole County office of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) recently partnered with the Salvation Army to help collect and distribute school supplies to low income children.

Staff has participated in the program for five years and volunteered their personal time for the past three. They provided information about available services, distributed clothing vouchers, and filled and distributed backpacks to children enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade.

"We helped give out 249 backpacks," said Peggy Ellwanger, child welfare secretary. "We filled them with crayons, colored pencils, erasers, spiral notebooks, scissors, glue sticks, colored folders, and lined paper. We were happy to work with other generous community partners like the Salvation Army."

Other staff members who helped distribute backpacks were Dana Dewalt, Shelly Wood, Ranea Lantz, Sonya Bradberry, Robyn Lindemann, and Shereata Ellis.

Ellwanger says it was especially touching to watch children redeem their clothing vouchers at the Salvation Army Thrift Store.

"To see the looks on the children's faces - knowing they will be able to start school and not be 'different' from children who can afford school supplies; and to hand them a clothing voucher so they have something that's 'new' to them to wear to school," said Ellwanger, "is worth a thousand words."

###