Pat Soderquist directs volunteers who are stuffing backpacks for students in Lewis County in Chehalis on Tuesday morning.
Volunteers in this photo met at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Chehalis on Tuesday morning to assemble backpacks of school supplies for students in Lewis County.
This week, various schools in Lewis County are set to receive an estimated $4,000 worth of donated school supplies. By October, there is another $8,500 coming in cash.
Windermere Centralia real estate agents and various volunteers spent Tuesday morning stuffing backpacks full of school supplies that they plan to distribute to the schools this week. The goal is to give the supplies to students who may have trouble affording them on their own.
“The principals, the teachers, the counselors — they know where the needs are and the kids that need to be helped,” said Max Vogt, also a Centralia City Council member. “We kind of work with each school to find out the needs and try to meet that as best we can.”
Vogt, who is also a designated broker at Windermere Centralia, led efforts to raise money for schools in Lewis County through the Windermere Foundation. Vogt worked with Pat Soderquist, who is the homeless coordinator for Centralia School District.
Vogt was not sure of the exact value of the school supplies, since about half of them were donated by the public. Windermere agents spent $2,000 on supplies, and Vogt said the public donated about as much supplies as the agents did.
“We’ve gone through two phases,” Vogt said. “Windermere went and bought about $2,000 worth of school supplies in June and then we had a list from Pat (Soderquist) of the Centralia schools and what they needed. Then the other school supplies, about equal amount that we’ve gained, we’re going to figure out how to get them to all the schools in Lewis County wherever we can.”
Soderquist refers to children who are homeless as “kids in transit.” In 2015, Centralia School District documented 152 kids in transit. This year, the district documented 199 kids in transit.
“Of those 199 students, 156 of them were living doubled up — living with a mom or dad, or relatives,” Soderquist said. “Some are living in hotels. We have a couple of them living in campers. The numbers keep going up. When I first started it was 152, this past year was 199. … A lot of our parents are working, struggling parents.”
Soderquist said that as students get older, they are less open about their housing situations.
“At kindergarten through fourth grade, it’s pretty easy,” Soderquist said. “The child will come in, or the parent will come in, and say ‘we’ve lost our house and we’re living with mom and dad or grandma and grandpa,’ … They would tell that story. … Middle school, high school is extremely difficult because (with) those students, it’s more of a pride thing. They don’t want to tell anybody.”
Schools can call Vogt at Windermere Centralia to request supplies or money at 360-736-3300.
“I want people to know (that) if there is not school supplies because we have given them all out, there is money coming,” Vogt said. “If they call, they can tell us what their needs are and we will put them in touch with the person who can find out what they need and they will get the money.”
