Get ready for Radio Day. Little Red Schoolhouse’s annual fundraiser is almost here

Due to COVID-19-related issues, the Little Red Schoolhouse will not host their usual Distribution Day where children and families can come and pick out school supplies for the upcoming year.

However, the organization, along with KXXO Mixx 96.1 radio station, will still hold their annual Radio Day fundraiser on Friday, Aug. 13.

From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., volunteers and workers will collect monetary donations and school supplies outside the Mixx 96.1 radio station on the corner of State Avenue and Washington Street in Olympia. All donations will be used to send school supplies to eight school districts in Thurston County, each of which will distribute the supplies to their students and families.

Judy Kimmeldorf, co-chair of Little Red Schoolhouse, said the organization had to decide in March whether to hold a distribution day this year, “and you never know with a disease what turn it will take.” So, out of caution and consideration for vulnerable people, the organization decided against an in-person distribution day.

Instead, all school districts will pick up the supplies from Chinook Middle School on Aug. 19. Kimmeldorf said she expects over 2,400 children from 900 families in the county to be helped by donations this year.

The Little Red Schoolhouse is asking for donations of:

• backpacks and bags;
• composition notebooks;
• graph paper;
• rulers;
• Crayola crayons;
• colored pencils;
• colored markers;
• backpacks;
• scientific & regular calculators; and
• cash donations

Kimmeldorf said she is excited to see all the donations pour in on Radio Day, even if they’re not in person. “You can make donations over the phone and even get interviewed [by the radio station] and tell a story.”

This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.