This week is the last week of summer vacation for Troup County students, which means parents and students are carefully reviewing long lists of school supplies needed for the upcoming year.

On Saturday, 16 local students received some help with those much-needed school supplies thanks to a partnership between Community Action For Improvement and Back to School Giveaway Purpose.

“It just takes the burden off the students not to have to worry about school supplies,” said Jennifer Woodyard of Back to School Giveaway. “They can just go to school and have that pressure relieved off of them and think about what is going on at school rather than what is going on in their backpack.”

The Back to School Giveaway group was formed as a way to give back to the community.

“The way that this idea came to life was — I saw Jennifer on Instagram, and I saw that she was working hard to try to pull this event together,” said Candice Ford of CAFI. “This is your second year… I simply went to her and said, ‘hey, do you have a sponsor?’ Because what we want to do is partner together as agencies to serve the community.”

The groups said they were excited to arrange the event and they hope to be able to help more students in future years.

“This is just our way of giving back,” Ford said.

“We hope each year that it will grow.”

The school supplies were given to students in elementary, middle and high school, as well as to college freshmen. The Sons of LaGrange Lodge 537 also contributed to the giveaway.