Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009

YMCA seeks help with school supplies

The YMCA of Southwest Illinois is inviting metro-east residents to help its students in need.

The YMCA's first Backpack Attack, a school supply drive intended to benefit local students from low-income families, will begin July 20 and last through Aug. 7.

The organization is looking for local businesses and agencies to join the effort by promoting the event and serving as a drop-off site.

The collection boxes and fliers needed to collect supplies and help publicize the Backpack Attack will be available during the kickoff event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. July 20 at all the local branch locations.

Locations include: Downtown Belleville YMCA, 200 S. Illinois St.; East Belleville Center, 2627 Carlyle Ave.; Cahokia Area YMCA, 509 Camp Jackson Road; Collinsville Maryville Troy Center, 1 Town Center Drive, Maryville; Monroe County, 9514 Caring Way, Columbia; O'Fallon Center, 284 N. Seven Hills Road; and Red Bud Center, 130 S. Oak St.

To register your business or for more information about the event and the recommended items to donate, contact Lea Thomas at 233-9485 or lthomas@ymcaswil.org. ...

Annie Jenkins and Morgan Goodwin, both 2009 graduates of Belleville East High School, have started a fundraiser known as the Cookie Wrapper Brigade to benefit Family Hospice of Belleville.

The program, sponsored by Nabisco, involves student volunteers who collect cookie wrappers for an eco-friendly New Jersey-based company called TerraCycle, which turns the cookie wrappers into school supplies to be sold in stores.

For more information on how to donate to the cookie wrapper collection, contact Kris Grawitch at 277-1800 or heartlinks@familyhospice.org. ...

Belleville Elks Lodge No. 418 awarded more than $10,000 in scholarships to local students. James Heafner, Erin Killebrew, Emily Kloss, Jamie Kloss and Tanya Tepen won physical and occupational therapy scholarships. Meghan Wehrle won the Elks National Foundation Legacy Scholarship. ...

Students from Millstadt School District 160 raised nearly $1,000 to purchase a protective vest for the Millstadt Police Department's dog, Kahos. ...

Erin Hatcher, a sophomore at Mascoutah High School, graduated from Level 4 of the Future Astronaut Training Program at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kan. The camp program teachers students teamwork, leadership and problem-solving skills while motivating them to pursue careers in science or space-related industries. ...

East St. Louis District 189 received a $2.5 million Back to Basics Transition to Teaching Program grant to increase teacher retention and fill staff shortages. The five-year program is a collaborative effort between District 189 and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. ...

Three Belleville early childhood centers -- Toddle Town, Learning Journey and Toddler House -- received accreditation from the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs. ...

SIUE's National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center will receive $237,000, nearly half of a $550,000 grant awarded to the St. Patrick Center in St. Louis for its Project GO! Green job training program, to provide biofuel operations training to about 60 St. Patrick's clients.