We would like to extend a special thanks to St. Elisabeth’s Episcopal Church for their generous donation to our Back to School giving initiative for Westside Elementary.

Eleanor Jordan, President of Daughters of the King ministry at the church, announced the drive at her group’s monthly meeting and asked for their help.  They answered the call, loading Eleanor down with bags and boxes of donations: 106 packs of paper and 175 spiral notebooks to be exact.

Eleanor brought the donations to us today, commenting, “Our members got really excited about this drive. We loved the idea of giving every child a backpack with supplies for attending on the first day.”

We asked Eleanor about the Church’s history with the school, as they are long-time adopters of Westside Elementary. “We first started making donations about 10 years ago, when we found out that the teachers bought pencils for TCAP out of their own pockets. We thought that wasn’t right. We wanted to help.” They stepped in to help the teachers that year, and they’ve been helping ever since with yearly donations of supplies for the students.

They also discovered how much the library needed new books.  “It’s an elementary school, so books would get worn out or lost – and they weren’t being replaced,” said Eleanor.  Noting their admiration for the strong reading program at the school, her group also now gives the library donations each year to buy new books.

To Eleanor and St. Elisabeth’s Episcopal: For everything you do for Westside – and for helping Orion with this project – THANK YOU!