9th annual Back-to-School Round-Up slated Aug. 5
The ninth annual Back-to-School Round-Up for Sequoyah County pre-kindergarten students up through seniors will be from 10 a.m. until noon Aug. 5 at the Sallisaw rodeo grounds.
“We also partner with KiBois for the backpack program on Saturday morning,” Sallisaw Lions Club Rodeo Chairman Marty Abell said about the event. “The Lions Club buys the backpacks, and we get other sponsors to fill those. We bought about 500 backpacks. It’s a big deal. People start lining up early. I’ve been out t...
The ninth annual Back-to-School Round-Up for Sequoyah County pre-kindergarten students up through seniors will be from 10 a.m. until noon Aug. 5 at the Sallisaw rodeo grounds.
“We also partner with KiBois for the backpack program on Saturday morning,” Sallisaw Lions Club Rodeo Chairman Marty Abell said about the event. “The Lions Club buys the backpacks, and we get other sponsors to fill those. We bought about 500 backpacks. It’s a big deal. People start lining up early. I’ve been out there before 7 a.m., and there’s people lined up. A lot of people participate in that and provide some giveaways, and provide things like hot dogs and drinks.”
Abell said that this event didn’t start out being a backpack giveaway.
“This used to be our foster kids rodeo,” he said. “We used to go out on Saturday morning, and the foster kids and the foster kids’ parents would come out. It was closed to them, and we’d open the concessions and sell hot dogs, popcorn and drinks. They got to ride ponies. The participation kind of dwindled, so that’s when we decided to partner with KiBois and make it a big event that way (backpack giveaway).”
The backpacks are for Sequoyah County students only, and they must be present to receive one.
