July is here, and that means families are preparing for the new school year. For those that might benefit from a little assistance or might want to check out community resources, the City of Yuma’s 15th Annual Back to School Rodeo is taking place Saturday, July 11 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Yuma Civic Center, 1440 W. Desert Hills Drive.
Each year, this free event provides information and resources — including free backpacks with supplies — for families with students in kindergarten through 8th grade.
“We like to help our community. It's all about giving back, and we are very aware that everything is very expensive,” said Brissa Cabrera, special event coordinator for the city. “We have a lot of families out there who might be struggling, so we just try and have this event once a year, at least, to get these kids a kick-off to the school year.”
As part of this event, the City of Yuma is distributing backpacks with select school supplies to the first 2,000 K-8 students who attend. Backpacks are limited to one per child. To receive them, children must be present.
For any families who might appreciate accommodations to receive a backpack, Cabrera noted that they can let one of the coordinators on site know and they’ll be asked to park in a handicapped parking space.
Backpacks aren’t the only draw for the event, however. Cabrera told KAWC there will be 25 nonprofits tabling at the event. The Yuma County Health Department will be offering any vaccines that families might want or need for their children before they start the school year, and the Yuma Police Department will also offer child fingerprinting.
Child fingerprinting is typically used to create personal identification kits for parents to keep at home and have available in the event of an emergency.
Both services — immunization and fingerprinting — are free for attending families.
This year’s Presenting Sponsors are APS, RAFI Law Group, Arizona Complete Health, Yuma County Drug Coalition, KYMA Channel 11, Telemundo 3, and ABC 5. Major Sponsors include State Farm – Cathy Nuetzi and Lamar.
Recognizing them is important, Cabrera said, because they made the free backpacks possible.
“This is a sponsorship event so we start with no budget,” she said. “All the school materials and the school supplies that we get for the backpack — it’s all based off sponsorship.”
Backpacks are first come, first serve, but if families miss out, there’ll still be an opportunity later that day at Lerner & Rowe’s backpack giveaway at 2 p.m. at the Yuma County Fairgrounds.
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Reporting for this article is supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
