The Creekside Elementary School PTA will hold a “Stuff the Bus” event in August to collect supplies for Suffolk’s school division.

This is the first year the Creekside PTA will do this for the whole school division.

“Last year, we just raised school supplies for Creekside,” said Creekside PTA President Christine Richards. “Last year, I was able to put together 31 backpacks, and this year we wanted to make it bigger. Since the school (division) is allowing us to use the school bus, we figured we should do it to benefit the division.”

The collection will take place over the course of two days both in North Suffolk and in downtown to give people plenty of opportunities to donate.

The Walmart on North Main Street will host the first day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 18, and the second day will be at the Chick-fil-A in North Suffolk, 6212 College Drive, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 19.

The PTA is looking for standard school supply items for the drive — pencils, composition notebooks, highlighters, dry erase markers, crayons and notebook paper — but they will also take backpacks and other supplies that are on school lists.

They hope they can get enough supplies to distribute to all the schools within the division, including middle and high schools,

“We want to really fill the bus,” Richards said.

Richards, along with other PTA members, thinks this is an important event with the school year right around the corner.

“There are so many students that don’t start the school year with everything they need, and this puts an extra burden on teachers,” Richards said. “We want everyone to start their first day with everything they need.”

They are going to distribute the items between the elementary schools in Suffolk first and then provide to the middle and high schools if there are enough items. The items will go to students most in need, Richards said.

For more information regarding the drive or to volunteer time, contact Christine Richards at crichardscreeksidepres2017@gmail.com.