LaGRANGE – On Tuesday, the LaGrange City Council agreed to provide $2,000 to Family and Children’s Education Services, so that the group can host a free back to school fair.

The event will be titled 2017 Troup County Community Fest and is scheduled for July 22.

“I attended a meeting with this group — the startup meeting for the event — and they’ve got a lot of community partners,” Councilmember Norma Tucker said.

“This is going to be a week before school starts, and (there is a desire) to have this community fest serve as the one stop shop because we have people who hop from spot to spot collecting supplies.”

Event organizers hope to reduce the need for parents to go to multiple community events in order to gather hundreds of dollars in school supplies, which would be difficult for low income families to afford.

FACES hopes to accomplish this goal by working with local churches and community groups who usually host similar fairs and hosting all the group events at Calumet Park.

“They are trying to limit that (hopping from one place to another) by getting a partnership with all those groups who have been doing their own (back to school) thing,” Tucker said.

“They are trying to bring them into this event in hopes of getting support.”

Despite the fact that the event will be in Calumet Village, the event will be open to the entire Troup County community, so it will benefit everyone.

“It is all communities, not just Calumet,” Councilmember Nick Woodson confirmed.

FACES requested the funding from the city in order to help purchase 480 drawstring backpacks, school supplies like paper, pencils and glue, prizes for the event and advertisement for the back to school fair.

The council did not guarantee funding for next year, and councilmembers expressed hope that the event would receive enough community interest not to need funding from the city after the first year.