Thousands of Families Benefit from Back to School Expo

On July 27 volunteers from across SIH descended on Marion, Illinois for the 7th annual Back to School Expo.

"Preliminary data shows that over 4,000 people were registered and over 3,000 people were scanned in for the Expo," said Cherie Wright, SIH School Health Coordinator.

The event has grown over the years, “The first year 40 people attended, and each year we’ve been able to increase it,” Cherie said.

The Southern Illinois Back to School Expo is hosted by the Franklin- Williamson Positive Youth Development Action team, in partnership with area businesses. Items such as, backpacks, dental exams, vision exams and haircuts are donated to area child in need. This year things looked a little different.

“This year, we had a big donation, so we could give out school supply kits, so that the kids had pretty much everything they needed to go back to school from this one event. We also had a website where people could pre-register. Madelyn (Shepard), our Community School Health Specialist, helped set that up. So, we had quite a few pre-register.”

Each year the Southern Illinois Back to School Expo looks for sponsors, volunteers, and vendors to take part in the event. So even though this year's expo has past, there is always next year.

“We look for big sponsors, we look for little sponsors. So, anybody could donate money, or if they had an organization or a group that wanted to help us fundraise, we’re always look for fundraising opportunities.” Cherie said.

For more information on how you can get involved click here.