Lines of parents shuffled their children from table to table during Saturday’s Back To School Resource Rally — signing up for the school lunch program, receiving clothing necessities, finding bus routes and even applying for employment.
Resource Rally organizers drew as many as 30 community organizations and volun-teer agencies together to help prepare Boerne area children for the new school year, which launches Aug. 12.
“The goal of this rally is to make sure our students are ready to go on that first day of school,” said Stephanie Bautista, Boerne ISD student support specialist.
Star photo by Jeff B. Flinn Bautista said the resource rally served 250 families and about 1,000 individuals, an increase over the 200 families and 800 people helped during the 2023 Back To School rally.
“We certainly have grown, our numbers were up over last year,” she said.
Certainly, need was evident, with hundreds of bags of underwear and socks, hygiene products and school supplies being passed out to anyone who chose to attend the three-hour event at the Boerne ISD administration office.
But “getting the word out,” she said, with flyers, social media and through the participating agencies brought the masses as well.
“Anybody can come, everyone was invited to the resource rally,” she said. “I know this year I saw our flyer out there more. We sent out texts, it was in the Welcome Back Parents newsletters, and we always urge participating agencies to get the word out” on their websites and social media pages.
Parents had the opportunity to check their children’s enrollment and immunization status, sign up for school lunch service and find their bus routes and numbers.
“We manned tables for registration and enrollment assistance, immunization verification and child nutrition services, where they could (file) lunch application,” she said, as well as transportation department employees giving out bus route information and BISD human resources hosting a BISD job fair.
“We had some people show up specifically for the job fair,’ she said. “They came dressed to impress. That’s great they took time to come out, we want to get those positions filled, too.”
Just days after the event, Bautista and her crew are already making plans for the 2025 resource rally, already slated for the last Saturday in July 2025.
“We start the ball rolling right now, to make sure those dates are going to work for us,” she said.
Just as they did this year, BISD will begin contacting participating agencies sometime in March, to see if they plan to return.
Volunteer organizations helped hand out goods, direct attending parents inside the rooms and hallways. The Knights of Columbus, Rotary Club of Fair Oaks Ranch, Boerne Lions Club and Boerne Sunshine Rotary helped immensely, she added.
Clothing was gathered through donations from Love Kendall County Kids; hygiene bags were supplied by Hill Country Family Services.
“It was just everything to get our kids ready for the first day of school,” she said.
Participating agencies included: Blessings in a Backpack, San Antonio Food Bank, Boerne Family YMCA, Communicare Health Centers, Hill Country Pregnancy Care Center, Texas Health Steps, Hill Country MHDD, Hill Country Family Services, Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries, Love Kendall County Kids, AETNA, Good For The Sole;
Innovista Eye, H-E-B, Boys and Girls Club of Boerne, Community First Health Plans, My Urgent Care Clinic-Boerne, San Antonio Council on Alcohol and Drug Awareness, MCNA Dental Plans, Boy Scout Troop 233-Leon Springs, SACADA, Girls on the Run Bexar County, Molina Healthcare, ABCD Pediatrics, and Little Smiles Dentistry.
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