Aug. 25, 2004 – The first day of school was kind of like Christmas for first graders at some St. Thomas schools on Wednesday, as members of Rotary Club of St. Thomas-East visited classrooms to make the club's annual presentation of packets to help the youngsters get off to a good start in the new academic year.
Rotarians Elmo and Rina Roebuck were among those doing the distributing, in their case to pupils in the classroom of Ms. Thomas at Michael J. Kirwan Elementary School.
Each child received one of the packets containing reading books, copybooks, rulers, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, crayons and scissors. Rotary East members put together about 640 of the packets, destined for 10 St. Thomas public schools, last week.
The packets are going to first graders at Leonard Dober, Joseph Gomez, Michael J. Kirwan, Hebert Lockhart, Evelyn Marcelli, Ulla Muller, E. Benjamin Oliver, Peace Corps, Joseph Sibilly and Jane E. Tuitt Elementary Schools Those that weren't handed out on Wednesday "will be distributed by the end of the week," Rena Roebuck said.
The packets were made possible through Rotary fund-raising efforts and donations, according to a release. "Rotarians care deeply about the children who will one day be the leaders in our community," a release stated. "This is the sixth year that Rotary Club of St. Thomas-East has sponsored these back-to-school packages, and we are delighted that it has become one of our annual projects."
Rotary East members Susan Roy and Michael Uhlig coordinated this year's effort.
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