Pulaski Schools thank community for Stuff the Bus donations
Jan. 20—The Pulaski County School System is expressing their appreciation for the community support they received participating in the toy and supply drive to help survivors of the December 11 tornado outbreak in western Kentucky.
Pulaski County Schools collected items as part of the "Stuff the Bus" campaign coordinated through Kentucky Educational Development Corporation and other Eastern Kentucky school districts, which then traveled by caravan to the impacted counties on December 20.
"You cannot believe the number of people even outside our schools that brought stuff in," Roxanna Bishop, district public relations/community education director, said. "Everybody just pulled together as a community. We were just overwhelmed by the support that we had."
Bishop added that staff and students at each of the county schools also brought in a great number of donations.
While the school drive's main focus was toys, Bishop said, donations of hygiene products and other items were also collected.
The district was able to fill two 86-passenger buses completely from floor to ceiling with collected items. A team of six, including Pulaski Schools Superintendent Patrick Richardson, rendezvoused with Rockcastle County and Somerset Independent at the old Kmart parking where a total of nine vehicles then traveled to the Central Kentucky Education Cooperative in Bowling Green for delivery.
From there, the donations were transferred from the buses to tractor-trailers furnished by Dollar General to distribute throughout the impacted region.
"Once we got over there, everybody was great about helping unload," Supt. Richardson said. "Everyone just pitched in. I think we unloaded 14 buses from all over the state."
Other vehicles in the statewide caravan were sent to Butler County. Overall more than 30 school districts participated.