Several local organizations and donors have been providing financial support for Sedona students prior to the start of the next school year on Aug. 1.

StreeHeat

StreeHeat Ministries, a Las Vegas -based nonprofit, held a sophomore backpack drive for underserved students on Saturday, July 13. This year’s event distributed 171 backpacks, up from 53 in 2023, with additional backpacks being provided to West Sedona School, Sedona Red Rock Junior High and Sedona Charter School.

“I feel like this has been a great opportunities for both organizations to partner together to make sure the families of Sedona have what they need in terms of not having to expend cash or for extra supplies,” new WSS Principal Alisa Stieg said. “Maybe a situation happens and the backpack gets stolen or lost or something. That family won’t have to burden themselves with going to replace those things because we will have them here and I just think it’s going to benefit our families tremendously.”

StreeHeat has also left 108 backpacks at Club Wyndham Sedona, located at 1500 Kestrel Circle, for residents to pick up for any students in Sedona in kindergarten through the fifth grade who are in need of backpacks or school supplies.

“We had more participation this year than we had last year and we are continuing to build our relationships with various coalitions,” StreeHeat president George Vaughn said. “We have also established a great relationship with the Wyndham Resort, which as of last week, the resort is now the liaison for Street-Heat Ministries, meaning that any Sedona residents or schools can call the Wyndham Resort [at (928) 203-1026] and receive additional backpacks.”

StreeHeat worked with several local organizations and businesses for this year’s drive including Manzanita Outreach, which provided activity booklets for students and previously operated a school supply program that it closed in 2023 to focus on its food assistance programs.

SedonaKind

On May 8, SedonaKind received a $14,750 donation from the 100+ Women Who Care Sedona-Verde Valley Chapter to be used at West Sedona School to provide school supplies for students.

“The goal of the grant was to make it such that no child at West Sedona School would have to purchase school supplies,” SedonaKind board member and Kindness in Schools Committee chairwoman Karen Bare said. “And so they wouldn’t be getting that list that the teacher sent home and that the grant money would then pay for everything that the students needed. And that would eliminate teachers having to spend money out of their own pocket.”

SedonaKind will not be eligible to receive the grant next year and some of the funding will carry over into the 2025- 26 school year; SOCSD Finance Director Stacy Saravo said the amount of the carryover has not yet been determined.

“Once those get delivered, we will [send] those materials directly to the classroom, so that will be quite a Christmas gift, so to speak,” Stieg said. “This year, the only things that [parents] are going to be responsible for providing will be the personal items like the backpack and the water bottle. Then through their Chromebook fees … they will also then be paying for their student’s planner and their Friday folder and all the other resources that they, again, they had to also purchase in the past. It’s going to be quite an alleviation for many families.”

Parents will also no longer be paying for students’ meals in SOCSD, the district announced on July 9.

“Our Goal [at SedonaKind] is to get back into the schools and continue our reading program,” Bare said of the group’s previous program that was shut down in 2020. “Essentially what we do is we have grade level appropriate books that focus on kindness as a theme, and we have a lesson that goes along with that book. So that students get instruction, if you will, on kindness … kind of to supplement their character education.”

Sedona Community Food Bank

“Our annual school supply drive continues and the need is great,” the SCFB wrote in its July newsletter. “When young scholars have the tools and supplies they need, they have a better chance to succeed in the classroom. Crayon, colored pencils, glue sticks, highlighters, No. 2 pencils, sharpeners, erasers, dry-erase markers, composition books, spiral notebooks and pencil cases are needed.”

Donations are accepted at 30 Inspirational Drive Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to noon [and] Wednesday afternoons from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Contact Cathleen Healy- Baiza at (928) 204-2808 with any questions.”

Sedona Toys for Tots 

Upon receiving the Arizona Community Foundation of Sedona’s Spirit of Philanthropy Award on April 14, former Sedona Toys for Tots coordinators Leonard and Karen Barrow received a grant of $1,000 to benefit a charity of their choice. The award was given to Sedona Toys for Tots who used it to participate in the Toys for Tot Foundation’s Literacy Program, which provided every student at West Sedona School with a free book before the school year ended.

“The TFT Foundation’s Literacy Program is one of a few ‘other than Christmas’ programs the Barrows have always wanted to get involved [in],” Sedona TFT Coordinator Angela Thomas said. “Hopefully, this will be the first of many opportunities to promote the TFT Literacy Program in the Sedona area. Congratulations and thank you to the Barrows. Their desire to encourage the positive growth of our children is endless.”

“It was a variety from Scholastic Books , ” Thomas said of the books. “I gave an assortment to each teacher and then the teacher was either going to let the students choose or she was gonna pass them out.”