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Farm Bureau collects over 2,000 tote bags for students
FAIRFIELD - Jefferson County Farm Bureau has collected over 2,000 tote bags for students in the Fairfield and Pekin school districts.
John Sandbothe, regional manager of Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, has helped to spearhead the collection along with other members of the county's Farm Bureau. He said he heard there might be a need for such tote bags from his wife, Jessica Sandbothe, a teacher in the Fairfield Community School District. She mentioned how the district was going to deliver the students' belongings to them that they left in their lockers and desks, which the students have been unable to access since classes were suspended on March 16.
Instead of delivering their belongings in trash bags, Jessica and Fairfield Middle School Principal Angela Jones said it would be nice to deliver the students' supplies in a more dignified way, such as tote bags. John said Jefferson County Farm Bureau would love to help with the effort, and began contacting local businesses to collect unused tote bags. In just two days, Farm Bureau had collected 2,000 bags, which is more than they needed to cover the students in the Fairfield district. Now additional bags will go toward students in the Pekin district.
John said he's not sure how soon the students will get their belongings since the buildings are still on lockdown.
'The school will use the bags as soon as they can,” he said.
The neighboring Farm Bureau office in Van Buren County has purchased bags for all the students in the Van Buren County School District to do the same thing.
John said that Jefferson County Health Center, Miller Realty, and Huffman Cabinetry were among the businesses that made large donations of bags. The Fairfield Convention & Visitors Bureau dropped off 250 of its totes, too.
'There are some organizations who have told me, ‘We don't have bags, but we want to purchase gift cards for the students,'” John said. He said that random bags now contain gift cards to local businesses.
'The support from our community has been overwhelming,” John said. 'Farm Bureau put in 500 bags, and now we have over 2,000. It's amazing.”
Photo courtesy of Wanda Bagby A selection of the more than 2,000 tote bags that businesses and organizations have donated to local students through Jefferson County Farm Bureau.
Photo courtesy of Terry Baker John Sandbothe, regional manager of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, displays one of the 250 totes donated by the Fairfield Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Photo courtesy of Terry Baker Terry Baker of the Fairfield Convention & Visitors Bureau displays one of the 250 totes her office donated to local students through a collection drive organized by Jefferson County Farm Bureau.
Photo courtesy of Wanda Bagby Wanda Bagby, community relations manager at Jefferson County Health Center, holds up some of the totes the health center donated to Jefferson County Farm Bureau's collection drive for local students. According to its Facebook page, Jefferson County Farm Bureau wrote, 'We'd like to give special recognition to the Jefferson County Health Center who already is going above and beyond to keep us safe, but also made a large donation to this project. Thank you! Special thank you to Angela Jones and Jessica for coming up with the idea.'
