By Mary Stewart | The Selma Times-Journal

First Baptist Church in Orrville will host its third annual book bag giveaway on Saturday, July 22 from 9-10 a.m.

Youth director Michelle Coleman and other volunteers are ready to hand out several hundred book bags with school supplies.

“We noticed that all the organizations around Dallas County just gave out school supplies,” Coleman said.  “So we decided to give out books bag and let us help the parents out more than just school supplies.”

Coleman and a team from the church decided the give away would be a way they could help the community.

“They just have basic supplies,” she said. “A pack of paper, binder, pencils, pens, erasers and rulers are going to be in each book bag.”

A private donor helps the church purchase the book bags every year.

“We use that money to benefit the children in our community, not just the children at our church,” Coleman said.

Volunteers will be handing out 240 book bags and gave out a little under 250 bags last year.

“We do have a few left from last year. That’s a big difference as to why we didn’t order so many this year,” Coleman said. “Once we give out what we ordered, we still have some more in case more people show up.”

While the youth group kept some book bags from last year, many of the left over bags were given to teachers or donated to schools in other areas.

Coleman said it’s important to give back to parents who are supporting students’ educations.

“Poverty is so high in our area,” Coleman said. “We have a lot of single parents, and we just have a lot of kids that just don’t have. If we can buy the book bags and some supplies, we cut down the parents spending by about 50 bucks. If you’ve got a parent with four children, we saved that parent $200.”